Arqueologia fenomenológica de Merleau-Ponty
Abstract
This dissertation is based the relationship between Phenomenology and Metaphysics,
one of the pillars of contemporary French Philosophy. If, in that context, there seems to be a
consensus according to which the metaphysical is originary, we, on the other hand, aim at
investigating its place and its origins. This work focuses on one of the aspects over which that
relationship has developed, and which, at the same time, characterize one novelty of
contemporary Philosophy, namely, the concern with language and with writing. When the
phenomenological discourse unveiled what it first denied, the Being, when it neutralized itself
in this incapability of expression, it brought the metaphysical, which thereafter needed to be
seen as originary. What characterizes the metaphysical in discourse is, thus, a rational
cohesion without a concept, that is, the absence of abstract and objective categories and of
pure meanings given a priori, for a thought which could possibly be prior to language. With
this rearrangement of the metaphysical concerning language, and taking it as a Philosophical
theme, we return to the origins and to the inauguration of Philosophy. Finally, we analyze this
surpassing of Phenomenology through the return to language phenomenon, which meant
having another encounter with Philosophy after Phenomenology. This re-visitation meant the
narrative of a new beginning. As we proceeded in this process, the importance of language for
the whole ontological project of Merleau-Ponty became more and more clear, especially
concerning the initial moments of a Phenomenology of perception, when it was not in the
center of our analysis, and when it was not discussed. This silence was revealing to us.