Virtuality and Truth. On Literature in Merleau-Ponty’s Indirect Ontology

Phainomenon 32 (1):69-84 (2021)
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Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the importance of literature in Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s reflections concerning two strictly connected phenomenological themes: 1) the virtuality of objects and of existence itself; 2) the genesis of truth and the intuition of essences. According to Merleau-Ponty, modern novelists have adopted a phenomenological method: instead of ‘explaining’ the world through words, they ‘show’ the lifeworld and its paradoxes indirectly. In his view, and against Jean-Paul Sartre’s position, analyzing literature means developing a theory integrating perception and the imagination. Moreover, at the beginning of the 1950’s, this perspective led Merleau-Ponty to a deep revision of the Sartrian concepts of spontaneity and engagement in literary practice in favour of a theory of expression as style. As a conclusion, the paper argues for the key-role of literature in Merleau-Ponty’s indirect ontology as a way of rediscovering unity and harmony behind the metamorphosis of reality.

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Le primat de la perception et ses conséquences philosophiques.Maurice Merleau-Ponty - 1989 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 179 (4):615-615.
Introduction.Galen A. Johnson - 2019 - Chiasmi International 21:67-69.
Introduction.Galen A. Johnson - 2019 - Chiasmi International 21:63-65.

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