The Philosophy of Ontological Lateness

Addressing Merleau-Ponty's work Phenomenology of Perception , in dialogue with The Visible and the Invisible , his lectures at the Coll�ge de France, and his reading of Proust, this book argues that at play in his thought is a philosophy of "ontological lateness+?. This describes the manner in which philosophical reflection is fated to lag behind its objects; therefore an absolute grasp on being remains beyond its reach.

Merleau-Ponty articulates this philosophy against the backdrop of what he calls "cruel thought+?, a style of reflecting that seeks resolution by limiting, circumscribing, and arresting its object. By contrast, the philosophy of ontological lateness seeks no such finality-no apocalypsis or unveiling-but is characterized by its ability to accept the veiling of being and its own constitutive lack of punctuality. To this extent, his thinking inaugurates a new relation to the becoming of sense that overcomes cruel thought. Merleau-Ponty's work gives voice to a wisdom of dispossession that allows for the withdrawal of being.

Never before has anyone engaged with the theme of Merleau-Ponty's own understanding of philosophy in such a sustained way as Whitmoyer does in this volume.