The Possibility of Philosophy

The Possibility of Philosophy presents the notes that Maurice MerleauPonty prepared for three courses he taught at the Collge de France: The Possibility of Philosophy Today, given in the spring semester of 1959; and Cartesian Ontology and Ontology Today and Philosophy and Nonphilosophy since Hegel, both given in the spring semester of 1961. The last two courses remain incomplete due to Merleau-Pontys unexpected death on May 3, 1961. Nonetheless, they provide indications of the new ontology that informed The Visible and the Invisible, a posthumously published work that was under way at the same time. These courses offer readers of MerleauPontys late thought a wealth of referencesto painting, literature, and psychoanalysis, and to the works of Husserl, Heidegger, Descartes, Hegel, and Marxthat fill in some of the missing pieces of The Visible and the Invisible, especially its often terse and sometimes cryptic working notes. We see more clearly how Merleau-Pontys attempt to bring forth a new ontology indicates a fundamental revision in what it means to think, an attempt to reimagine the possibility of philosophy.