Description
Institution and Passivity
Book Summary
This work offers the unpublished working notes of philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty for his 1954-1955 academic year course. The reader gains access to the thinker's intellectual laboratory, where the problem of institution is addressed from a phenomenological perspective. The book's primary value lies in revealing how collective and individual experiences are constituted and sedimented, exploring the tension between the active and the passive in human, animal, and social life.
What is it about?
The text compiles Merleau-Ponty's preparatory notes for five major thematic blocks of his course. In them, the philosopher examines the concept of institution not as a fixed structure, but as a dynamic process of sense constitution. Through a review of key positions in ethology and fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis, the author analyzes how forms of life are instituted, in both the animal and human realms. The work delves into the passivity inherent in all experience, exploring how what is received, inherited, and sedimented conditions our action and perception of the world.
Main themes
- Phenomenology of the institution as a process of sense sedimentation.
- Relationship between animal life and human life based on ethology.
- Critical review of fundamental psychoanalytic concepts (unconscious, repetition, transference).
- Passivity as a constitutive dimension of experience and subjectivity.
- Temporality and historicity in the formation of the instituted.
Who is it recommended for?
This book is aimed at students and specialists in philosophy, particularly those interested in 20th-century French phenomenology. It will also be of great value to researchers in the human sciences (psychology, sociology, anthropology) who work with phenomenological approaches or who seek to understand the genesis of social and psychic structures. It is an essential read for those who wish to delve into Merleau-Ponty's late thought and his original treatment of the institution.
What this book offers
- Direct access to the thought process and working notes of one of the most influential phenomenologists of the 20th century.
- A novel perspective on the institution, far from sociological or structuralist approaches, which understands it as a dynamic and bodily process.
- Keys to rethinking the relationship between the active and the passive in the constitution of subjectivity and social life.
- An original analysis that connects phenomenology with ethology and psychoanalysis, opening paths for interdisciplinary dialogue.
Technical specifications
- Author: Maurice Merleau-Ponty
- Publisher: Anthropos Editorial
- Language: Spanish
- Topic: Humanities, Philosophy, Religion and beliefs
- Collection: Siglo Clave
- Binding: Paperback
- Edition date: June 2012
- Number of pages: 102
- Weight: 181 g
Editorial review
This edition is a fundamental tool for studying Merleau-Ponty's thought, as it offers the preparatory material for a course that delves into one of his most complex and least disseminated concepts: the institution. The work stands out for its theoretical density and the richness of the references used by the author. It is especially valuable for an academic audience seeking to understand the connections between phenomenology, psychology, and the life sciences, as well as for those interested in the evolution of the philosopher's thought toward his final works.