Merleau-Ponty: An Ontology of the Imaginary
About this ebook
This book develops the ontology of the imagery sketched by Merleau-Ponty and examines its practical implications. As its originally ambiguous and inseparable underside, the imaginary is just as central to Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy as perception. The author argues to enlarge the notion of reality by recognizing the imaginary dimension and “texture” of the real, and that Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of the flesh cannot be separated from an ontology of the imaginary. This monograph examines Merleau-Ponty’s conception of the imaginary against both his aesthetics, and his political philosophy – and appeals to students and researchers working in phenomenology and continental philosophy.
About the author
Annabelle Dufourcq is Professor of Philosophical Anthropology at Radboud University. She has published on the relation between the real and the imaginary in contemporary continental philosophy, with special interest in phenomenology. She is the author of 'La dimension imaginaire du réel dans la philosophie de Husserl' (Springer 2010) and 'The Imaginary of Animals' (Routledge 2021).
Bryan Smyth is Instructional Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi. His research deals primarily with phenomenology and critical social theory. He is the author of Merleau-Ponty’s Existential Phenomenology and the Realization of Philosophy (Bloomsbury, 2013), and he translated Merleau-Ponty’s The Sensible World and the World of Expression (Northwestern University Press, 2020).
