The Inexhaustible Depth of the World: Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy of Nature

Simone Gustafsson (University of Melbourne)

Wednesday April 13th, 6:00-7:30pm

Building 9, cnr Bowen & Franklin Sts
Room 9.3.4A

*Free admission. Wheelchair accessible (entry at the rear of Building 9).

"The Inexhaustible Depth of the World: Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy of Nature"

Simone Gustafsson (The University of Melbourne)

Abstract:

At the outset of the first Nature course in 1956 at the Collège de France, Maurice Merleau-Ponty declares: “Nature is an enigmatic object, an object that is not an object at all.” Emphasizing the primacy of perceptual experience, Merleau-Ponty argues that nature has never been conceived unambiguously as an object and hence in accordance with mechanism. Nature as an object of thought is not the nature we experience; the meaning and experience of nature exceeds the concept of it. Nature is, as Merleau-Ponty claims, “our soil – not what is in front of us, facing us, but rather, that which carries us.” As such, the human body must form a part of a philosophy of nature, such that there is no rupture between humanity and animality. We can only comprehend Being from within, and this comprehension is not an achievement of constituting or reflective consciousness. This paper relates Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of animal being and his account of the human body to the idea of depth. It advances the claim that Merleau-Ponty’s critique of the ‘flat’ ontology of the object in his philosophy of nature amounts to a restoration of the inexhaustible depth of the world.

Bio:
Simone Gustafsson is a graduate student and tutor at The University of Melbourne. She is currently completing a dissertation entitled "Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy of Nature: Negativity, Ontology, and the Rehabilitation of the Possible."

About PoD:

The Philosophies of Difference group (PoD) is a Melbourne-based group of scholars working in continental philosophy and interested in problems that have been marginal to the dominant traditions of Western thought. We engage with approaches including: critical philosophy of race, decolonial thought, feminist theory, Indigenous studies, philosophy of disability, philosophy of nature, queer theory, and trans philosophy. The first PoD seminar series will consist of weekly seminars beginning in March 2016. We especially welcome participation and contribution from women, people of colour, and other minority groups.

For further information email: [email protected]  

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