basic [book:Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Basic Writings|203362]
140913: this is Volume 3:
part 5, ethics and politics, investigates those areas of philosophy of which I have less interest, though this might be unrecognized tendency towards liberal political organization, the sort of which seems axiomatic or at least little examined here in 21st Century. and then ethics make me think of Nietzsche, whom I have not read much, but enough to admire some on a personal level, on subjective level, on mind level, and doubt much on a social level...
part 6, on feminist philosophy, is a difficult selection of essays, not in writings, but in my reading. have not read much feminist philosophy or viewed masculinist philosophy with feminist eyes- but here I alternate between feeling I have just not read enough, that I read too naively, that I am insensitive in appreciating feminist critique simply because I never notice sexist points she notes- or in the end, just feel bad, mostly because I am a heterosexual, mostly healthy, mostly privileged, man...
Merleau-Ponty is my favourite philosopher, but have not been aware of buried and not-so-buried, unnoticed, sexism in his entire project of surpassing the dualism of mind vs matter etc., the mistaken ontologies of realism and idealism, with his style of embodied consciousness, with his final thoughts toward 'the flesh', with perception at the start of his work to 'reversibility' towards the end, all of this re-examined from a feminist viewpoint...
there is an essay on phenomenological feminism, another on sexual ideology and phenomenological description, a very engaging essay on 'throwing like a girl', a few essay pointers on how useful his thought has been, in recovering or validating feminist theories, experiences, and even now, thirty years on from their writing and sixty or so from his last works, he remains useful and inspiring...
on to Volume 4...:
[book:Merleau-Ponty: Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers|14863381]
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