Merleau-Ponty and Derrida on Husserl’s Origin of Geometry
Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy April 12, 2024 Douglas Low
This paper challenges Jacques Derrida's criticisms of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's interpretation of Edmund Husserl. It argues that Derrida was wrong to claim that Merleau-Ponty misinterpreted Husserl's letter to Lucien Lévy-Bruhl, and that Derrida's critique of Husserl's phenomenology does not apply equally to Merleau-Ponty's work. Using careful textual evidence, the author shows that Merleau-Ponty's late lectures on language develop a phenomenology that integrates perception and language while still prioritizing perception over eidetic essences or linguistic expression.