Abstract
In this contribution, I will analyze the conceptualization of time in the work of Merleau-Ponty and how it shapes the idea of bodily intentionality. In his late work, a nonlinear concept of time prevails and fosters the idea of fleshly agency. I will draw upon “the immemorial” as “impossible past” (Merleau-Ponty 1968: 123) and ask to what extent the idea of originary pastness enables an approach to agency that broadens the current discussion of “new materialism.” In particular, I will argue that the immemorial institutes a temporality that is generative of meaning. As invisible or unconscious, it is written into the structure of flesh and makes self-differentiation possible. Hence, the emergence of self, other, and the world – or rather, as Merleau-Ponty puts it, the emergence of sentient, sensed, and the rest. Under that premise, humans and non-humans can be equated from a methodological point of view. However, there are also differences to the principle of generalized symmetry of Actor-Network Theory. I will show that only flesh comprises generative power, not matter. Finally, I will present the consequences that follow from Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of flesh and introduce video hermeneutics as developed in Kissmann (2014a).
Keywords
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- 1.
Young questioned the goal-orientation in Merleau-Ponty’s early work on intentionality. If action is identified with the object at which it is aimed, Merleau-Ponty neglects the situations where no goal is at play. For this reason, Young added the notion of “I cannot” to Merleau-Ponty’s “I can” (ibid.).
- 2.
When the present moment becomes past, it is considered as retention. In contrast, when the present moment is projected into the future, Merleau-Ponty describes it as protention (ibid.: 439 f.).
- 3.
Coenen criticized the Schutzean “typification” because, firstly, sense-making is characterized as mental process. And secondly, his critique drew upon typification as objectifying and generalizing activity. Using the work of Merleau-Ponty, he developed a new concept of bodily typification.
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Kissmann, U.T. (2019). What Makes Sensation of a Sentient Thing Possible: The Concept of Time in the Work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In: Kissmann, U., van Loon, J. (eds) Discussing New Materialism. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-22300-7_2
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