THINKING DESCARTES IN CONJUNCTION, WITH MERLEAU-PONTY: THE HUMAN BODY, THE FUTURE, AND HISTORICITY

Griffith J. E. C.

FILOZOFIA, vol.74, no.2, pp.111-125, 2019 (AHCI) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 74 Issue: 2
  • Publication Date: 2019
  • Doi Number: 10.31577/filozofia.2019.74.2.3
  • Journal Name: FILOZOFIA
  • Journal Indexes: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.111-125
  • Keywords: Rene Descartes, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Human body, Future, Historicity
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: No

Abstract

This article addresses a debate in Descartes scholarship over the mind-dependence or -independence of time by turning to Merleau-Ponty's Nature and The Visible and the Invisible. In doing so, it shows that both sides of the debate ignore that time for Descartes is a measure of duration in general. The consequences to remembering what time is are that the future is shown to be the invisible of an intertwining of past and future, and that historicity is the invisible of God.