Irreversibilità e Possibilità del Nuovo. Merleau-Ponty e Luhmann sulla Paradossalità del Processo

Abstract

Are we able to observe time? In the following paper, we aim to answer this question from the perspectives of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. In the first two paragraphs, we argue that Merleau-Ponty’s model of the institution of meaning allows us to distance the temporal dimension from its subjective constitution, in order to think of time as a subject itself, leading to a historical metaphysics. In the third and fourth paragraphs, we show that Luhmann, by radicalising phenomenology, completes the step forward that Merleau-Ponty takes on Husserl. In systems theory, the observation of time is made possible by the unfolding of its originary paradox. In summary, this article offers an original comparison in the literature on philosophies of process and aims to unfold Luhmann and Merleau-Ponty’s theories as rooted in the paradoxical instance of Fundierung, rejecting a foundation in terms of Begründung.