The Senses of Birth and the Birth of Sense in M. Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology

Abstract

This paper aims to highlight the recurrence and centrality of the notion of birth in the whole of Merleau-Ponty’s corpus, adopting it as an alternative key for understanding other problems and concepts usually privileged in the study of his philosophy (such as the relationship between perception, language and thought, corporeality, intersubjectivity, nature or temporality). Three senses of birth are schematically distinguished in his work (as origin, intertwining, and institution of novelty and singularity) and the way in which they relate to each other is analyzed, addressing them in connection with their phenomenological sources in Husserl. Secondarily, over the course of the article some convergences and contrasts with close theoretical developments of Arendt, Sartre, Pato?ka and Bergson are pointed out.