Merleau-Ponty: Difference, Materiality, Painting

Veronique Foti presents a collection of current American and European scholarship on the important foci in the thought of Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961): the problematic of difference as understood in post-Heideggerian and poststructuralist thought, the thematization of materiality, and the ontology and theory of painting. Although the three sections contain essays written from a wide spectrum of viewpoints, they emphasize, respectively, the important connections of Merleau-Ponty's thought to that of Derrida and Levinas, the Husserlian heritage and complex implications of his philosophy of material existence, and the relation of his philosophy of painting to contemporary abstract art. A distinguishing feature of this collection is its emphasis on contemporaneity. Although aimed at a readership in contemporary European philosophy, scholars interested in the theory of painting, including artists and art critics, will find the collection of interest.