Beyond the Human: The Pre-Subjective Existence in Bimbenet’s Reading of Merleau-Ponty’s Anthropology
Abstract
Étienne Bimbenet’s view on anthropology in Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy acknowledges the difficulties such a project has due to the openness of the late Merleaupontian notions of expression and existence. In this research, I aim to contribute to this problematization by proposing that the late Merleaupontian phenomenology drafts a pre-subjective existence in his writings on language and perception. I claim that the notion of human in Merleau-Ponty is impossible due to its ontological dependence on subjectivity, which is problematized in his last works. To achieve this objective, my argumentation follows three parts. Firstly, I present Bimbenet’s study on anthropology in Merleau-Ponty, in order to raise questions on the exclusiveness of human symbolic behavior. Secondly, I will address Merleau-Ponty’s proposal of expression, which I affirm implies an ambiguity between an active and a passive dynamism, to address its existential nature, tearing down an anthropological thesis. And, finally, I will take the previous ambiguity to argue a pre-subjective existence in late Merleau-Ponty, further problematizing the anthropological objective of his first work.
Keywords: Human, Anthropology, Subjectivity, Existence, Expression, Language
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