Towards an ontological rehabilitation of the sensible in Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the project of an ontological rehabilitation of the sensible in Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961). His philosophy aims to rehabilitate Being in the sensible, learning from the universe of painting to see beyond the visible – its in-between –, teaching us that Being reveals itself in parts, never in totality. This makes life and creation a single adventure: relearning how to see the world. An adventure that requires our continuous involvement, because the world is unfinished and yet to be created. Given this, we will see how, for the French thinker, the creation – both the artist's creative act and the viewer's resumption of the work – allows us to reflect on our participation in the world of life, showing that we are crossed by a fundamental passivity. According to him, this passivity is not opposed to activity. Activity and passivity are parts of the same phenomenon. For our study, we will investigate the philosopher's writings in which he deals with this topic, especially in the unfinished text The invisible and the invisible.