The Body Elsewhere. Unfinishedness of Feeling and Historicity of the Subject in Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

Extending far beyond philosophical research, the reference to Merleau-Ponty’s thought permeates nowadays multifarious fields of knowledge. The reason for the diverse developments of this philosophy can be found in its reflection on the body, which appears so relevant today because of the negotiation of sensibility brought about by the multiple challenges of contemporary technoculture. However, the contemporary interest for this philosophy cannot be reduced to the Copernican gesture, namely the ontological rehabilitation of the sensible, with which Merleau-Ponty brought the body at the centre of philosophical investigation. Three complementary pivotal elements of Merleau-Ponty’s conception of corporeality and the flesh, need to be highlighted to thoroughly appreciate the philosopher’s legacy: the gap of the sensible, the virtual power of the body, and the conception of historicity of perception and the transcendental.