Beith Don - The birth of sense: generative passivity in Merleau-Pontys philosophy

The Birth of Sense

SERIES IN CONTINENTAL THOUGHT

Editorial Board

Ted Toadvine, Chairman, University of Oregon

Michael Barber, Saint Louis University

Elizabeth A. Behnke, Study Project in Phenomenology of the Body

David Carr, Emory University

James Dodd, New School University

Lester Embree, Florida Atlantic University

Sara Heinmaa, University of Jyvskyl, University of Helsinki

Jos Huertas-Jourda, Wilfrid Laurier University

Joseph J. Kockelmans, Pennsylvania State University

William R. McKenna, Miami University

Algis Mickunas, Ohio University

J. N. Mohanty, Temple University

Dermot Moran, University College Dublin

Thomas Nenon, University of Memphis

Rosemary Rizo-Patron de Lerner, Pontificia Universidad Catlica del Per, Lima

Thomas M. Seebohm, Johannes Gutenberg Universitt, Mainz

Gail Soffer, Rome, Italy

Elizabeth Strker, Universitt Kln

Nicolas de Warren, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University

International Advisory Board

Suzanne Bachelard, Universit de Paris

Rudolf Boehm, Rijksuniversiteit Gent

Albert Borgmann, University of Montana

Amedeo Giorgi, Saybrook Institute

Richard Grathoff, Universitt Bielefeld

Samuel Ijsseling, Husserl-Archief te Leuven

Alphonso Lingis, Pennsylvania State University

Werner Marx, Albert-Ludwigs Universitt, Freiburg

David Rasmussen, Boston College

John Sallis, Boston College John Scanlon, Duquesne University

Hugh J. Silverman, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Carlo Sini, Universit di Milano

Jacques Taminiaux, Louvain-la-Neuve

D. Lawrence Wieder

Dallas Willard, University of Southern California

The Birth of Sense

Generative Passivity in Merleau-Pontys Philosophy

Don Beith

OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS

ATHENS

Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Beith, Don, author.

Title: The birth of sense : generative passivity in Merleau-Pontys philosophy / Don Beith.

Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2018. | Series: Series in Continental thought ; No. 52 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018000072 | ISBN 9780821423103 (hc : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780821446263 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908-1961.

Classification: LCC B2430.M3764 B45 2018 | DDC 194dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018000072

Dedicated to an especial teacher, authentic friend, and generative philosopher: John Russon

Rhythm and melody supply imitations of anger and gentleness, and also of courage and temperance, and of all the qualities contrary to these, and of the other qualities of character, which hardly fall short of the actual affections, as we know from our own experience, for in listening to such strains our souls undergo a change.... There seems to be in us a sort of afnity to musical modes and rhythms, which makes some philosophers say that the soul is a harmony.

Aristotle, Politics 8

Nature loves to hide.

Heraclitus, Fragment 123

All action is an invasion of the future, of the unknown.

John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct

Birth [is not an act] of constitution but the institution of a future. Reciprocally, institution resides in the same genus of Being as birth and is not, any more than birth, an act: there will be later decisionary institutions or contracts, but they are to be understood on the basis of birth and not the reverse.

Therefore [there is an] instituted and instituting subject, but inseparably, and not a constituting subject; [therefore] a certain inertia[the fact of being] exposed to... but [this is what] puts an activity en route, an event, the initiation of the present, which is productive after itGoethe: genius [is] posthumous productivitywhich opens a future.

The subject [is] that to which such orders of events can advent, field of fields.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Institution

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many excellent philosophers have helped to shape this project. I am thankful to John Russon, to whom this book is dedicated, for provocative conversations, particularly one Socratic walk around Toronto where he got me thinking about three levels of passivity in Merleau-Pontys thinking. Alia Al-Saji, for whom phenomenology is a rigorous science, has been an exceptional writing mentor, leading me to insights about temporality in Bergson and Merleau-Ponty. A natural phenomenologist, David Morris has challenged me to think of being in terms of development. Discovering Ted Toadvines deep work on nature was a pivotal moment in my learning, and I thank him for his many insightful comments on this work. I am indebted to Anthony Steinbock for sharing his original investigations at the Phenomenology Research Center, for challenging me to think about personhood, and particularly for his work on generative method in Husserl, out of which I develop the tripartite interpretative method of this study. Thanks are also due to thinkers who challenged me to think more deeply about nature, difference, and expression: Iain Macdonald, Cynthia Willett, Lisa Guenther, Doug Anderson, Hasana Sharp, George di Giovanni, Sunny Wang, Carolina Bergonzoni, William Ross Kemperman, Daniel Elliotte Allan, Zain Raza, Sarah McLay, Meghant Sudan, Donncha Coyle, Thomas Minguy, Filip Niklas, Ivanna Besenovsky, Jack Marcotte, and Jingjing Li.

Inspiring colleagues have supported me and shared their passion with teaching over the years at Bishops University, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Maine, especially Kirsten Jacobson, Jessica Miller, Roger King, James Crooks, Bruce Gilbert, Steven Taubeneck, Scott Anderson, and Noah Moss Brender.

I am grateful to John Russon for his outstanding teaching and work to lead vigorous philosophical seminars on the history of philosophy, where I discovered the inspiration to study philosophy and was introduced to a world of philosophers. I owe more than I can say to the participants of the Toronto Seminar for formative discussions over the years, especially Nate Andersen, Joe Arel, mer Aygn, Susan Bredlau, Noah Moss Brender, Tim Brownlee, David Ciavatta, Patricia Fagan, Tim Fitzjohn, Bruce Gilbert, Shannon Hoff, Whitney Howell, Kirsten Jacobson, Greg Kirk, Kym Maclaren, Scott Marratto, Laura McMahon, David Morris, Jeff Morrisey, Eve Rabinoff, Greg Recco, Bryan Richard, Karen Robertson, Eric Sanday, Jacob Singer, Maria Talero, and Ollie Wiitala.

Deep thanks to the two anonymous reviewers who provided a wealth of philosophical resources and perspectives on the lacunae in this work. Thanks also to the tireless work of the staff and editors at Ohio University Press, particularly Rick Huard, Deborah Wiseman, and Ted Toadvine. I am indebted to Leonard Lawlor for sharing an early draft of his translation of Institution and Passivity with a small group of dedicated Merleau-Ponty scholars in Montreal in the winter of 2010. It was a gift to have had the colleagues of an informal Merleau-Ponty institution as interlocutors for several years in Montreal: merci beaucoup, Shiloh Whitney, Noah Moss Brender, David Morris, Tristana Martin Rubio, Lisa Guenther, Don Landes, and Dan Landreville.