Volume 23, 2021
Critical Phenomenology after Merleau-Ponty
Aurélien Dru
Pages 169-186
De la coexistence humaine à l’histoire ouverte. Sur la productivité de la praxis intersubjective et de la dialectique de l’institution chez Merleau-Ponty de 1945 à 1955
We examine here the evolution of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of history from Humanism and Terror to the 1955 course on “Institution in Personal and Public History” in order to explain what makes it “ambiguous.” This evolution is explained by the desire to understand history according to intersubjective praxis and the dialectical scheme of historical institution. The articulation of these two levels allows Merleau-Ponty to develop a philosophy of historical productivity, that is, a conception of history as a practical process that is open, unfinished, and continually “instituting” by virtue of the always revived and entangled taking up of human actions. Therefore, the more general challenge is to define the specificity of a thought of history that unfolds from the permanent and central concern for the achievement of human coexistence.