Merleau-Ponty's Thoughts On Nature

Merleau-Ponty had been working on the relationship of nature and human being all the time during his last several years.After his passing away,his assistant sorted out his manuscripts and made it published with the title NATURE.In this book,Merleau-Ponty reviewed dualist conceptions of nature in the history.It was from the dissatisfaction to dualist where Merleau-Ponty started his criticizing.In the course on nature,the interrogation of nature coincides with the reworking of Merleau-Ponty’s breakthrough towards the classical ontology and therefore plays a primordial role.This thesis intends to examine the path of Merleau-Ponty’s idea of nature:firstly,we will show that historical overview of the idea of nature in history of philosophy.Secondly,by view of the elaboration of the meaning of human body,that of the natural being is revealed in this thesis-the nature is no longer the originary in its differences from the derived,but encompasses the generativity of meaning;Thirdly,the significance of the idea of nature is exposed by putting its development in the phenomenological system of Merleau-Ponty.For Merleau-Ponty,the problem of nature is brought out into the open by means of the history of western metaphysics,in which Descartes is emblematic figure.The problem reflected by him is the tension between two approaches towads nature:the humanists’which accentuates itsndeterminability and therefore its transparency to the understanding;the romanticists’ which emphasizes the irreducible facticity of nature and tends therefore to valorize the viewpoint of sense.To the extent that the idea of nature is always threatened by ontological diplopia in pure philosophy,it is on the very ground of contemporary science that Merleau-Ponty finds the path to anew philosophy of nature.Historically reviewing,Merleau-pontys’ reflection on nature manifests his surpassment and development to the proceeding phenomenology.In his later works,he began with nature is to show the identity in it of being and being-percived.Thus,it is indeed by reflection on nature that the tension towards ontology comes about.A new ontology is given by reflection on nature indirectly,which allows us to hold the duality.It should be concluded that this ambiguous ontology embodies its transcendence to Cartessian philosophy of nature and Husserlian tradition ofphenomenology.