Department of Philosophy, CUHK, 1st Term 2017-18

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PHIL 5150 Topics in Western Philosophy:

Merleau-Ponty: The Visible and the Invisible

Prof. LAU Kwok-ying 劉國英教授 kylau@cuhk.edu.hk KHB 427 Ext 37140

Time： Thur 10:30-13:15 Venue: UCC C4

Assessment method:

for Post-Graduate students: presentation and class discussion: 40%; Final Essay: 60%;

for Final Year Undergraduate students: presentation and class discussion: 40%; mid-term essay: 20%; Final essay: 40%.

Teaching language: English + Cantonese/Putonghua + some working French

A. Object: This seminar studies the last philosophy of Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) developed around his posthumous unfinished treatise The Visible and the Invisible (Le visible et l’invisible, 1964) and related writings. The ontological thought expressed in this group of writings, commonly known as ontology of the flesh (l’ontologie de la chair), is on the one hand the radicalization of the genetic phenomenology, phenomenology of the body, developed in the Phenomenology of Perception (Phénoménologie de la perception, 1945), and on the other a coming-to-terms with Sartre’s ontology of nothingness in Being and Nothingness (L’être et le néant, 1943). We aim to show that Merleau-Ponty has appropriated important insights from Husserl’s phenomenological writings neglected by Heidegger, namely Ideas II, the Crisis, and the Origin of Geometry, to develop his conception of the flesh which enquires into the pre-objective order of things. The ontology of the flesh, being an ontology of chiasm between the visible and the invisible articulated through the concepts of reversibility and écart, is a philosophy which assigns a positive role to difference and negativity. Thus Merleau-Ponty’s final phenomenological ontology, though unfinished, accommodates well the challenge of structuralism (e.g. of Lévi-Strauss) and announces the philosophies of difference of Derrida and Deleuze presented under the label of post-structuralist thought.

B. Outline (tentative) 1. Introduction:

a) Merleau-Ponty’s conception of phenomenology in 1945

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Reading: “Preface”, Phenomenology of Perception, Eng. trans. D. Landes, p. 1xx-lxxxv. b) Acquisition of the phenomenological descriptions of the body-subject and the problem of its ontological status in Phenomenology of Perception. Reading: Phenomenology of Perception, Part I, “The body and Cartesian analysis”, pp. 204-205; Part II, “The theory of the body is already a theory of perception”, pp. 209-213; Part III, “The Cogito”, pp. 387-431.

2. Merleau-Ponty’s reflections on language and phenomenological reduction in the 1950s Readings: a) “Indirect language and the Voices of Silence”, in Signs, Eng. tr. Richard C.

McCleary (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1964), pp. 39-83. b) “The Philosopher and his Shadow”, in Signs.

3. Ontology of the flesh in The Visible and the Invisible

Readings: a) Ch. 1. “Reflection and Interrogation”, pp. 3-49 b) Ch. 2. “Interrogation and Dialectic”, pp. 50-104 c) Ch. 3. “Interrogation and Intuition”, pp. 105-129 d) Ch. 4. “The Intertwining— The Chiasm”, pp. 130-155 e) Ch. 5. [appendix] “Preobjective Being: The Solipsist World”, pp. 156-162 f) Selections from working notes

4. Ontology of the sensible and Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenological Aesthetics

Readings: - “Cézanne’s Doubt”, in Sense and Non-Sense, Eng. Trans. Hubert L. Dreyfus and Patricia Allen Dreyfus (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1964), pp. 9-25. - “Eye and Mind”, revised Eng. trans. Michael Smith, in The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader. Philosophy and Painting, ed. Galen Johnson (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1993), pp. 121-149.

C. References (to be augmented) a) Merleau-Ponty’s works

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- Phenomenology of Perception, Eng. Trans. of Phénoménologie de la perception (Paris : Gallimard, 1945) by Donald Landes (New York & London : Routledge, 2012).

- Signs, Eng. Trans. of Signes (Paris: Gallimard, 1960) by Richard C. McCleary (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1964).

- The Visible and the Invisible, Eng. Trans. of Le visible et l’invisible (Paris : Gallimard, 1964) by Alphonso Lingis (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1968).

- Sense and Non-Sense, Eng. Trans. of Sens et non-sense (Paris: Nagel, 1948) by Hubert L. Dreyfus and Patricia Allen Dreyfus (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1964)

- The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader. Philosophy and Painting, ed. Galen Johnson (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1993).

b) Work’s on Merleau-Ponty 1. Barbaras, Renaud. “The Ambiguity of the Flesh”, in Merleau-Ponty: figures et

fonds de la chair, Chiasmi International, nouvelle série, no. 4, ed. R. Barbaras, M. Carbone and L. Lawlor (Paris: Vrin, 2002), 19-26. French version : “L’ambiguïté de la chair. Merleau-Ponty entre philosophie transcendantale et ontologie de la vie”, in Merleau-Ponty aux frontière de l’invisible (Les Cahiers de Chiasmi International, no. 1), ed. M. Cariou, R. Barbaras, and E. Bimbenet (Milano: Associazione Culturale Mimesis, 2003), 183-189.

2. Barbaras, Renaud. L’être du phénomène. Sur l’ontologie de Merleau-Ponty (Grenoble: Jérôme Million, 1991). Eng. trans. by Ted Toadvine and Leonard Lawlor as The Being of the Phenomenon: Merleau-Ponty's Ontology (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2004).

3. Barbaras, Renaud. Desire and Distance: Introduction to a Phenomenology of Perception (Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2006).

4. 5. Carbone, Mauro. La chair de images: Merleau-Ponty entre peinture et cinéma

(Paris : J. Vrin, 2011). 6. Carman, Taylor (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty (Cambridge,

UK & New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). 7. Carman, Taylor. Merleau-Ponty (New York & London: Routledge, 2008). 8. Colette, Jacques. “La réflexivité du sensible. Une aporie phénoménologique”, in

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, le psychique et le corporel, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Paris : Aubier, 1988), pp. 39-51.

9. Dastur, Françoise. “Monde, chair, vision”, in Chair et langage. Essais sur Merleau-Ponty (Fougères: Encre Marine, 2001), pp. 69-107; Eng. trans. As “World, Flesh, Vision”, in Chiasms, Merleau-Ponty’s Notion of Flesh, ed. Fred

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Evans and Leonard Lawlor (Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 2000).

10. Dillon, Martin C. Merleau-Ponty‘s Ontology (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2nd ed., 1997).

11. Dillon, Martin C. (ed.). Merleau-Ponty vivant (Albany, N.Y. : State University of New York Press, 1991).

12. Dillon, Martin C. (ed.). Écart & Différance: Merleau-Ponty and Derrida on Seeing and Writing (Atlantic Highlands, N.J. : Humanities Press, 1997).

13. Garth, Gillan (ed.) The Horizons of the Flesh. Critical Perspective on the Thought of Merleau-Ponty (Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 1973).

14. Hass, Lawrence. Merleau-Ponty's philosophy (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008).

15. Lau, Kwok-ying. “Intersubjectivity and Phenomenology of the Other: Merleau-Ponty’s Contribution”, in Space, Time, Culture, ed. David Carr and Chan-fai Cheung (Dordrecht/ Boston/London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004), pp. 135-158.

16. Lau, Kwok-ying. “Who is the Philosopher whose Shadow Merleau-Ponty is Facing?—“The Philosopher and His Shadow” (Re-)Revisited”, paper presented in OPO III, World Conference on Phenomenology: Nature, Culture and Existence, co-organized by the Organization of Phenomenological Organizations (OPO), The Department of Philosophy, CUHK, Edwin Cheng Foundation Asian Centre for Phenomenology, CUHK, The Center for Advanced Research in Phenomenology, USA, Chung Chi College, CUHK, Hong Kong Society of Phenomenology, held 15-20 December 2008, at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 19 pages.

17. Lau, Kwok-ying. “The Madness of Vision: The Painter as Phenomenologist in Merleau-Ponty”, in Corporeity and Affectivity: Dedicated to Maurice Merleau-Ponty, eds. K. Novotný, P. Rodrigo, J. Slatman and S. Stöller (Leiden-Boston: Brill Verlag, 2014), pp. 161-181. E-version link: https://www.academia.edu/27537339/The_Madness_of_Vision-The_Painter_as_Phenomenologist_in_Merleau-Ponty

18. Lau, Kwok-ying. “What does Existence mean? Merleau-Ponty’s way from Body-Schema to Sexual Schema”, paper presented to 第十屆兩岸三地四校南北哲學

論壇：「心靈與身體」學術研討會 (“The 10th Nord-South Philosophy Forum of the Four Universities Across the Taiwan Strait: Mind and Body”) , organized by The Department of Philosophy, CUHK, held in Hong Kong, 15-16 Nov 2014, 16 pages.

19. Lau, Kwok-ying. “Différance, Lack and Écart: Elements of the Logic of Heterogeneity”, in Kontexte des Leiblichen / Contexts of Corporality, hrsg. Cathrin Nielsen, Karel Novotný, Thomas Nenon (Nordhausen: Verlag Traugott Bautz GmbH, 2016), pp. 443-456.

20. Lau, Kwok-ying. “The Flesh: From Ontological Employment to Intercultural Employment”, in Phenomenology and Intercultural Understanding. Toward a New Cultural Flesh (Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, 2016), pp. 173-192.

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21. Lau, Kwok-ying. “Lévi-Strauss and Merleau-Ponty: from Nature-Culture Distinction to Savage Spirit and their Intercultural Implications”, in Phenomenology and Intercultural Understanding. Toward a New Cultural Flesh (Heidelberg: Springer Verlag, 2016), pp. 153-172.

22. Madison, Gary B. “The Ethics and Politics of the Flesh”, in The Ethics of Postmodernity : Current Trends in Continental Thought, ed. Gary B. Madison and Marty Fairbairn (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1999), pp. 174-190.

23. Maldiney, Henry. “Chair et verbe dans la philosophie de M. Merleau-Ponty”, in Maurice Merleau-Ponty, le psychique et le corporel, ed. Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka (Paris: Aubier, 1988); “Flesh and Verb in the Philosophy of Merleau-Ponty”, in Chiasms, Merleau-Ponty’s Notion of Flesh, ed. Fred Evans and Leonard Lawlor (Albany, NY : State University of New York Press, 2000).

24. Toadvine, Ted & Embree, Lester (ed.). Merleau-Ponty’s Reading of Husserl (Dordrecht ; Boston : Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2002).

25. 劉國英：<梅洛龐蒂：以人文科學改造現象學(編者序)>，《現象學與人文科

學》第 6 期，<梅洛龐蒂：以人文科學改造現象學>專輯， 2016，頁 vii-xxix。 26. 劉國英：<肌膚存在──從存在論層面到跨文化層面的運用>，《現象學與人

文科學》第6期，<梅洛龐蒂：以人文科學改造現象學專輯>，2016，頁75-108。

27. 劉國英：＜梅洛龐蒂錯解海德格？──重探《存在與時間》與胡塞爾的關係

及基本存在論計劃的一些缺失＞，《現象學與人文科學》，第5期，＜海德

格：詮釋現象學及其蛻變－《存在與時間》專輯＞ ，2014，頁 163-192。 28. 劉國英：＜梅洛龐蒂的肉身主體現象學及其哲學意涵＞，刊《修遠之路──

香港中文大學哲學系六十周年系慶論文集·同寅卷》，劉國英、張燦輝編

（香港：中文大學出版社），2009，頁491-532。 29. 劉國英：＜視見之瘋狂──梅洛龐蒂哲學中畫家作為現象學家＞，刊《視覺

的思想：現象學與藝術國際學術研討會論文集》， 孫周興、高士明編（杭

州：中國美術學院出版社，2003），頁 26-40。 30. 劉國英：＜梅洛龐蒂的現象學方法＞，《中國現象學與哲學評論》第二輯，

《現象學方法》（上海：上海譯文出版社，1998），頁243-257。