Chiasmi International publishes for the first time two previously unpublished working notes from Merleau-Ponty that date from 1959 and the first chapter of a previously unpublished text that Simondon had written some years earlier: texts that testify to the intersecting reflections that Merleau-Ponty and Simondon were conducting on one of the most decisive themes for the philosophy of the 20th Century: individuation. Some authors, who are among the best known specialists in the question of individuation, make their contributions bear on the subject matter of these texts, and on the relations between the thought of Merleau-Ponty and that of Simondon. The theme of the second section is the topic of life, which runs across Merleau-Ponty’s lectures on nature, and shows itself to be perfectly complementary of that of the first one. The contributions devoted to the second theme essentially come from the Merleau-Ponty Circle (University of Western Ontario, 2003).

Texts by: Giuliano Antonello, Daniela Calabro, Mauro Carbone, Fabrice Colonna, Miguel De Beistegui, Emmanuel De Saint Aubert, Helen A. Fielding, Paolo Gambazzi, Jacques Garelli, Xavier Guchet, Mariana Larison, Leonard Lawlor, Kym Maclaren, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, David Morris, Mario Neve, Felix O Murchadha, Franck Robert, Davide Scarso, Gilbert Simondon, Jenny Slatman, Ted Toadvine, Robert Vallier, Veniero Venier.