Merleau-Ponty died before he could finish his important work The Visible and Invisible
Merleau-Ponty did a lot of stuff, including consulting the Husserl Archives in Leuven, and generally focuses on the body in his phenomenology.
Is part of the 1st generation of French phenomenologists, with Sartre, Levinas, Koyré, Hering, etc.
Sartre & Merleau-Ponty were concerned with phenomenology beyond the methodological divide between Husserl and Heidegger.
During WW2 Sartre & Merleau-Ponty were part of the resistance and generally had a period of significant growth - leading to a larger growth post-war due to the respect their partaking in the resistance led to.
The Phenomenology of Existence (1945) -
draws on many human sciences to look at existence.
MP claims Husserl and Heidegger do not sufficiently consider the role of the living body.
Heidegger’s existence is concerned with “understanding” and “interpreting -” there is no body to be spoken of.
Husserl’s existence is concerned with “knowing” and “cognition.” While the body does play a huge role in his considerations, the way he understands intentionality (in his published works) always bring it closer to knowing and cognition.
The separation of the body to “Leib” and “Körper” allows us to go beyond Cartesian dualism. The former is the “living body”/“corps vivant,” while the latter is but the matter that constitutes it.
MP is a hater of the “Cartesian interpretation of language”
Being is not purely intellectual, [isn’t this just embodied cognition]?