Das Auge und der Geist

The works collected in this volume by the French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) not only provide an excellent introduction to his philosophy, but also document the development of new reflections in the years following the publication of "The Phenomenology of Perception" (1945). Art theoretical discussions stemming from Cézanne or Klee, philosophical analyses of language in critical response to Saussure's structuralism, as well as reflections that philosophically address sociological, literary, gestalt psychological, or psychoanalytical findings, trace the fundamental phenomena of expression and embodied meaning. Following Husserl's phenomenological imperative to express the still mute experience of its own meaning, Merleau-Ponty discovers, in an archaeological manner, forms of articulation of the spiritual that resist direct access but can be indirectly indicated and articulated in their own media. In a historical dimension, a sense in statu nascendi unfolds, which Merleau-Ponty explores in various areas of culture. Contents: Introduction by the editor, editorial note, "The Doubt of Cézanne" (1945), "Cinema and the New Psychology" (1947), "The Metaphysical in Man" (1947), "Man and the Resistance of Things" (1952), "Writing for the Candidacy at the Collège de France" (1951/52), "Indirect Speech and the Voices of Silence" (1952), "In Praise of Philosophy" (1953), "From Mauss to Claude Lévi-Strauss" (1959), "The Philosopher and His Shadow" (1959), "The Eye and the Spirit" (1961), Bibliography of Merleau-Ponty's writings.