This thesis argues that the end of Soviet Marxism and a bipolar global political imaginary at the dissolution of the short Twentieth Century poses an obstacle for anti-systemic political action. Such a blockage of alternate political imaginaries can be discerned by reading the work of Francis Fukuyama and "Endism" as performative invocations of the closure of political alternatives, and thus as an ideological proclamation which enables and constrains forms of social action. It is contended that the search through dialectical thought for a competing universal to posit against "liberal democracy" is a fruitless one, because it reinscribes the terms of teleological theories of history which work to effect closure. Rather, constructing a phenomenological analytic of the political conjuncture, the thesis suggests that the figure of messianism without a Messiah is central to a deconstructive reframing of the possibilities of political action - a reframing attentive to the rhetorical tone of texts. The project of recovering the political is viewed through a phenomenological lens. An agonistic political distinction must be made so as to memorialise the remainders and ghosts of progress, and thus to gesture towards an indeconstructible justice which would serve as a horizon for the articulation of an empty universal. This project is furthered by a return to a certain phenomenology inspired by Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Ernesto Laclau. The thesis provides a reading of Jacques Derrida and Walter Benjamin as thinkers of a minor universalism, a non-prescriptive utopia, and places their work in the context of new understandings of religion and the political as quasi-transcendentals which can be utilised to think through the aporias of political time in order to grasp shards of meaning. Derrida and Chantal Mouffe's deconstructive critique and supplement to Carl Schmitt's concept of the political is read as suggestive of a reframing of political thought which would leave the political question open and thus enable the articulation of social imaginary significations able to inscribe meaning in the field of political action. Thus, the thesis gestures towards a form of thought which enables rather than constrains action under the sign of justice.

"2004". / Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media & Philosophy, Department of Critical and Cultural Studies, 2005. / Bibliography: p. 315-327. / Introduction -- Aporias and openings in the architecture of the mind's eye: deconstructing pure visuality in Descartes -- Visuality, universal flesh and phenomenal circularity: visio-corporeal generality with Merleau-Ponty -- Corporeal envisionings as power-knowledge: Foucault and diffuse visio-governmentality -- The grammatology of visuality: visio-corporealising Derrida's "science" of the trace -- Conclusion. / The conception of visuality within what Jacques Derrida understands as the 'metaphysical epoch' demands revision in order to produce a fully post-metaphysical theory of visuality. Drawing upon the corporeal phenomenology of perception in Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the politico-cultural conception of visuality in Michel Foucault and the trace philosophy of vision in Jacques Derrida, visualities are theorised here as dynamic 'corporeal tracings' immanently bearing politico-cultural forces. Elements of these three major thinkers are here brought into generative dialogue and welding which, for instance, relocates the corporealism of Merleau-Ponty in terms of the trace dynamics conceived by Derrida and which in turn insists upon the visio-corporeality of general writing that Derrida largely elides. A rereading of Rene Descartes on vision is advanced in the light of this theory that deploys Derrida's deconstructive method to detect the aporias and self-deconstructions within a characteristic metaphysical discourse of pure visuality that overtly elides both corporeality and the trace (understood in the theory of corporeal tracings as inseparable). -- Merleau-Ponty is critiqued from a post-dualist position on the role of the mind and the body in the experience of visuality, Foucault's ideas on bodies, visualities and diffuse powers are developed through the notion of'visio-govemmentality' and Derrida's conceptions of grammatology and the trace are redefined in terms of an emphasis on visiocorporeality. New terms and concepts emerge from these engagements that extend and elaborate visuality theory in terms of fully post-metaphysical domains of understanding. There is a commitment throughout to three theoretical positions: corporealism, culturalism and holism or what is termed here 'total contextualism'. These positions enable the fully post-metaphysical theorisation of visualities as dynamic and complex corporeal tracings encompassing both human bodies and total visio-corporeal contexts. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 327 p

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Στην παρούσα εργασία παρουσιάζουμε τη θέση του χρώματος στη φιλοσοφία του Merleau-Ponty για τη ζωγραφική, έχοντας εξετάσει και τον τρόπο που αυτό λειτουργεί στην αντίληψη. Μέσα σε αυτό το πλαίσιο, διερευνούμε την αισθητική του Merleau-Ponty, αναδεικνύοντας κάποιες από τις δυνατότητες καθώς και κάποιους περιορισμούς της. / This thesis is an attempt to present Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of painting through the notion of colour.

No description available.

Through a detailed analysis of a selection of works produced between 1999 and 2003 by the South African artist Berni Searle, this thesis explores the need to theorise a corporeal viewer in the process of interpreting art works. Such an approach is particularly necessary when dealing with an artist such as Searle because her work, which deals predominantly with the theme of identity, appeals not only to conceptual but also to experiential and corporeal understandings of identity. Searle incorporates the viewer into an experience of her own identity through a physical identification that the viewer feels in relation to her work. For viewers this means that they are made aware of how their own identity in the moment of interpretation is contingent on visual, mental and physical components. In order to develop this argument the work of psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty is drawn on. These two theorists are very useful for an argument of this nature because both interpret identity as a construction involving an enfolding between the mind and, via the act of vision, the body of the subject. Through an inclusion of the corporeal element in interpretation, this thesis also offers a critique of interpretive theories that would reduce analysis to an interaction between eye and mind by analyzing how the viewer's body participates in the act of looking.

viii, 189 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The question of the present study concerns the relationship between language and nature as it has been taken up in the history of Western philosophy. The goal of this study is to show how language and nature are held together by thinking the transition between them, through the figure of silence. I will show this by drawing primarily on the work of Merleau-Ponty, who, as a phenomenologist expressly concerned with the senses, the body, and language, attempted to describe and understand the passage between language and nature in a manner that could maintain their ontological continuity. Silence was the hinge of this passage, in which language, in its emergence from the silence of nature, turns back to disclose nature as already expression. Merleau-Ponty's late interrogation into how philosophical language might both emerge from and return to silence turned on the example of Proust's literary language. This study will also draw on Proust's meta-novelistic awakening to his literary calling, as it is recounted near the end of Le Temps Retrouvé, which discusses explicitly how Proust's language makes a turn through silence in order to emerge as literature. This provides an example of the emergence which Merleau-Ponty describes. I will then make the case that Merleau-Ponty's late philosophy can be read as the thinking of being as nature, and that it begins to think how language roots human beings in nature as it blossoms out of nature's soil. I will show how Merleau-Ponty repeats a structure of thought traversed by Schelling in his essay on freedom, which will further show how philosophical attention to language discloses nature as a radical excess. Finally, I will discuss how the negotiation between language, nature, and silence, as it is practiced by Merleau-Ponty, Proust, and Schelling, is another turn in a long story of the human place in language and in nature, a story which is at least as old as the mythical thought of ancient Greece. / Committee in charge: Peter Warnek, Chairperson, Philosophy; Naomi Zack, Member, Philosophy; Ted Toadvine, Member, Philosophy; Jeffrey Librett, Outside Member, German and Scandinavian

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:22:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2013-09-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:27:48Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 alves_fc_me_ia.pdf: 949904 bytes, checksum: 1884eb7f0cf21d91bbf6cff87dd06d2f (MD5) / Esta dissertação investiga a noção de arte moderna presente na reflexão estética do filósofo Maurice Merleau-Ponty, partindo da hipótese de que tal noção está inclusa na meditação sobre as indivisibilidades entre a relação homem, natureza e expressão artística. Apresenta a concepção de arte e arte moderna concomitantemente à trajetória e ao discurso filosófico de Merleau-Ponty. Discorre sobre a tese do filósofo acerca do retorno ao mundo percebido, as indivisibilidades, o corpo vidente e visível, o sensível, a carne do mundo, a pintura, o Ser bruto, a Natureza, logos e a expressão. A partir desses temas, foram desenvolvidas leituras sobre os seguintes textos para dimensionar essa noção de arte moderna: “A dúvida de Cézanne”, “A expressão e o desenho infantil”, “A linguagem indireta”, “A linguagem indireta e as vozes do silêncio” e “O olho e o espírito”. Para compreender o pensamento de Merleau- Ponty aproximamos suas ideias a várias teorias da história e da filosofia da arte, a partir dos temas: o espírito moderno, as correspondências, a representação e a expressão. Por fim, destaca os principais valores e ideias que compõem a noção de arte moderna em Merleau- Ponty. / This work investigates the notion of modern art in this aesthetic reflection of philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, on the hypothesis that such a notion is included in the meditation about the indivisibilities on the relationship between man, nature and artistic expression. It presents the concept of art and modern art concomitantly to the trajectory and the philosophical discourse of Merleau-Ponty. This work also discuss the thesis of the philosopher about returning to the perceived world, the indivisibilities, the visible and invisible body, the sensitive, flesh of world, the painting, the Being, the Nature, the logos and the expression. On the themes, the following texts were studied to investigate the author’s notion of modern art: “Cézanne’s Doubt”, “Expression and the child’s drawing”, “The indirect language”, “The indirect language and the voices of silence” “Eye and mind”. To comprehend Merleu-Ponty’s ideas, his thought was related with various History and Art Philosophy theories, under the following themes: the modern mind, correspondence, representation and expression. At last, this work emphasizes the core values and ideas that make up the notion of modern art of Merleau-Ponty.

This research intends to report the UFS professors perception concerning the teaching activity through their discourses and the relationships surrounding them. For this purpose our theoretical foundation is Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological perspective through which he proposes to discuss the possibilities that make sense of the existence of the world. This refers to a philosophical thought based on the concepts of: own body, perception, and intersubjectivity. We understand that as he/she expresses a certain perception, the professor will show a point of view, either about him/herself, about partners or about the academic scenario. Therefore, we are able to describe the different views in the different areas of the UFS Campus. The importance of the subject lies on the possibility of valuing the professors’ personal and professional growth by means of comprehending their existence, showing them the reality of their practice and of the very education they have acquired—they, as subjects expressing the human necessities. Thus, as we deal with a professor we shall notice his/her context and relations are not only limited by their practice and discourse but are also highlighted being, the professor an individual incarnated in the world. / Esta pesquisa se direciona em relatar a percepção que os professores da UFS possuem acerca do exercício da docência através do seu discurso e das relações que os cercam. Para tanto, utilizaremos como base de sustentação teórica os fundamentos da perspectiva fenomenológica de Merleau-Ponty, onde o autor propõe como meta discutir a possibilidade criadora de sentidos para a existência no mundo. Trata-se de uma reflexão filosófica apoiada nos conceitos de: Corpo Próprio, Percepção e Intersubjetividade. Em meio a realidade vivida pelos docentes, destacamos o ser humano, o ser que durante o percurso de sua vida é envolvido pela complexidade das implicações sociais, culturais, cognitivas, emocionais e espirituais, e por esta razão, necessitamos compreendê-lo enquanto ser inteiro, aquele que dá sentido ao mundo, que o transforma, que possui a consciência que o mundo não é apenas um conjunto de coisas e fatos estudados pelas ciências, seguindo relações de causa e efeito e das leis naturais. Entendemos que o ser docente ao exteriorizar sua percepção nos mostra o seu olhar seja: sobre si, sobre seus pares e sobre o mundo acadêmico, assim podemos descrever os diferentes olhares nas diferentes áreas do conhecimento da UFS. A importância dessa temática se faz para valorizar o desenvolvimento pessoal e profissional dos docentes através do entendimento no que diz respeito a sua existência, dando-lhes uma noção da realidade de como estão atuando e da própria formação adquirida como sujeito que expressa as necessidades humanas, assim, quando observamos o docente, poderemos perceber que seu meio e suas relações vão além da análise da sua prática e do seu discurso, e assim, poderemos evidencia-lo como um ser encarnado no mundo.

This work is based on phenomenological perspective of Merleau-Ponty, to substantiate the evidence of an interrelation between the under construction, culture, and the subject of perception, pointing, thus, the evidence of an educational foundation designed to put the body in harmony with the notion of subjectivity. The goal is to defend the idea of the body itself as educational principle, intending to establish a study about how the body makes us essentially beings of relationship with the world and with each other. We thought enlightenment, to identify elements of a design designers of physical education from the relationship between the intellect, morality and the physical body. The intention was to conduct a mapping of thinking education body in the 18th century, through the analysis of pedagogical conceptions of Locke, Rousseau and Kant, seeking to prove the idea of body educated and therefore prepared for the autonomy and morality. The intention was to conduct a mapping of thinking education body in the 18th century, through the analysis of pedagogical conceptions of Locke, Rousseau and Kant, seeking to prove the idea of body educated and therefore prepared for the autonomy and morality. The need to educate the body was adopted in the scenario of modern pedagogy, and despite advances brought by this project, as regards the revaluation of the body under educational, we find the proposal for a body instrument. On the philosophical perspective of Merleau-Ponty, the body is not a thing nor an abstract idea, it is sensitive and intentional presence, which makes the subject a perceptual consciousness incarnated in the world, capable of reaprendê him constantly. This process, however, is not spontaneous; It requires learning and training, since the provisions do not sprout from a metaphysical basis. This body subject, which manifests itself through its drive, displays appropriate codes and beliefs that were due to a particular cultural pattern produced and inherited by perceived context. The body that Merleau-Ponty presents us with is the one we experienced while conducting our intentions, desires and projects. In this sense, we realized the body itself as a principle that enables us to relearn the world. It is in this sense, that the pedagogical practice needs to be guided by a principle of education, we encourage to meditate and reflect on the consequences of the facts, of own shares, and feel. / Este trabajo se basa en la perspectiva fenomenológica de Merleau-Ponty, para corroborar la evidencia de una interrelación entre el bajo construcción, cultura y sujeto de percepción, señalando, por lo tanto, la evidencia de una fundación educativa para poner el cuerpo en consonancia con la noción de subjetividad. El objetivo es defender la idea del propio cuerpo como un principio educativo, con la intención de establecer un estudio acerca de cómo el cuerpo nos hace esencialmente seres de relación con el mundo y entre el outro. Asumimos de la ilustración, para identificar los elementos de un diseñadores de diseño de educación física de la relación entre el intelecto, la moral y el cuerpo físico. La intención era hacer un mapeo de la educación de cuerpo de pensamiento en el siglo XVIII, a través del análisis de las concepciones pedagógicas de Locke, Rousseau y Kant, tratando de probar la idea de cuerpo educado y por lo tanto, preparado para la autonomía y la moralidad. La necesidad de educar el cuerpo fue adoptada en el escenario de la pedagogía moderna, y a pesar de los avances llevados por este proyecto, en cuanto a la revalorización del cuerpo bajo educativo, encontramos incluso el instrumento propuesto cuerpo. En la perspectiva filosófica de Merleau-Ponty, el cuerpo no es uno ni una idea abstracta, es sensible y presencia intencional, lo que hace el sujeto una conciencia perceptual encarnado en el mundo, capaz de reaprendê le constantemente. Este proceso, sin embargo, no es espontáneo; Él necesita de aprendizaje y capacitación, ya que las disposiciones no brotan de una base metafísica. Este tema de cuerpo, que se manifiesta a través de su unidad, muestra códigos adecuados y creencias que eran debido a un determinado patrón cultural producido y heredado por contexto percibido. El cuerpo que Merleau-Ponty nos presenta con es el que experimentamos mientras realizaba nuestras intenciones, deseos y proyectos. En este sentido, nos dimos cuenta el propio cuerpo como un principio que nos permite a reaprender el mundo. Es en este sentido que la práctica pedagógica debe ser impulsado por un principio educativo, que nos anima a meditar y reflexionar sobre las consecuencias de los hechos, las acciones propias y sentir / O presente trabalho baseia-se na perspectiva fenomenológica de Merleau-Ponty para fundamentar as evidências de uma interrelação entre a corporeidade, cultura e o sujeito da percepção, apontando, assim, os indícios de um fundamento educativo destinada a pôr o corpo em sintonia com a noção de subjetividade. O objetivo é defender a ideia de Corpo Próprio como princípio educativo, pretendendo estabelecer um estudo acerca de como o corpo nos faz essencialmente seres de relação com o mundo e com os outros. Partimos do pensamento iluminista, para identificar os elementos estruturadores de uma concepção de Educação Física, a partir da relação entre o intelecto, a moralidade e o corpo físico. A intenção foi realizar um mapeamento da forma de pensar a educação do corpo no século XVIII, através da análise das concepções pedagógicas de Locke, Rousseau e Kant, buscando revelar a ideia de corpo educado e, portanto, preparado para a autonomia e a moralidade. A necessidade de educar o corpo foi adotada no cenário da pedagogia moderna, e apesar dos avanços trazidos pela perspectiva iluminista, no que diz respeito à revalorização do corpo no âmbito educacional, encontramos ainda a proposta de um corpo instrumento. Na perspectiva filosófica de Merleau-Ponty, o corpo não é uma coisa nem uma ideia abstrata, ele é presença sensível e intencional, que faz do sujeito perceptivo uma consciência encarnada no mundo, capaz de reaprendê-lo constantemente. Esse processo, no entanto, não é espontâneo; ele necessita de aprendizagem e treino, já que as disposições não brotam de um fundamento metafísico. Este Corpo Próprio, que se manifesta por meio da sua motricidade, apresenta códigos e crenças que foram apropriados em virtude de um determinado padrão cultural produzido e herdado pelo contexto percebido. O corpo que Merleau-Ponty nos apresenta é aquele vivenciado por nós como realização de nossas intenções, desejos e projetos. Neste sentido, percebemos o Corpo Próprio como um princípio que nos possibilita reaprender o mundo. É nesse sentido, que a prática pedagógica precisa ser orientada por um princípio educativo, que nos incentive a meditar e a refletir sobre as conseqüências dos fatos, das próprias ações, e do sentir