Abstract

In this paper I put forward an argument concerning the place and significance of painting in Merleau-Ponty’s famous last essay Eye and Mind. I argue that for Merleau-Ponty modern philosophy comes about through an engagement with vision – in an attempt to think its peculiar virtue of “action at a distance” – but ends up betraying this dynamic, by offering us an account of vision that is grounded in the spontaneity of the mind. In this sense I claim that Eye and Mind is genealogical in intent, and that Merleau-Ponty’s analysis of painting is central to accomplishing this task.