The Possibility of Philosophy: Course Notes from the College de France, 1959-1961

The Possibility of Philosophy presents the notes that Maurice Merleau-Ponty prepared for three courses he taught at the CollEge 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-Ponty’s 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 Merleau-Ponty’s late thought a wealth of references-to painting, literature, and psychoanalysis, and to the works of Husserl, Heidegger, Descartes, Hegel, and Marx-that 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-Ponty’s 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.