Ontology and Alterity in Merleau-Ponty (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy) - Softcover

In this work, leading Merleau-Ponty scholars state and interpret the philosopher's later ontology of flesh and reversibility, some defending and some challenging its accommodation of alterity and difference. Claude Lefort's seminal lecture criticizing Merleau-Ponty's treatment of otherness in The Visible and the Invisible and two previously untranslated essays by Emmanual Levinas shape this dialogue on reversibility, reciprocity, symmetry, and asymmetry in self-other relationships extending across ethics, politics, epistemology, and child development. The contributors respond to Lefort's and Levinas's critiques and expand the discussion to Merleau-Ponty's other works and his relation to Derrida and Hegel.

Galen A. Johnson is professor of philosophy at the University of Rhode Island and Director of the URI Center for the Humanities. He is also the General Secretary (Director) of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle.