Winner of the 2020 Edward Goodwin Ballard Prize in Phenomenology Merleau-Ponty's Developmental Ontology
shows how the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, from its very beginnings, seeks to find sense or meaning within nature, and how this quest calls for and develops into a radically new ontology. David Morris first gives an illuminating analysis of sense, showing how it requires understanding nature as engendering new norms. He then presents innovative studies of Merleau-Ponty's
The Structure of Behavior and Phenomenology of Perception
, revealing how these early works are oriented by the problem of sense and already lead to difficulties about nature, temporality, and ontology that preoccupy Merleau-Ponty's later work. Morris shows how resolving these difficulties requires seeking sense through its appearance in nature, prior to experience-ultimately leading to radically new concepts of nature, time, and philosophy.
Merleau-Ponty's Developmental Ontology
makes key issues in Merleau-Ponty's philosophy clear and accessible to a broad audience while also advancing original philosophical conclusions.