The Trio Of Time:On Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology Of Time

"What is phenomenology?" This is the first sentence of Phenomenology of Perception.With the claim of "the impossibility of complete reduction",Merleau-Ponty picks up again the original belief of phenomenological philosophy and begins his phenomenology of body.Analyzing the possibility of phenomenology and establishing the base of phenomenology are also the essential steps in his project.This means that the purpose of the question "what is phenomenology" is not only theoretical clarification of phenomenology,but also a kind of radical inquiry "how can phenomenology be possible".As an internal strategy rather than independent theory,Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of time is included in his whole phenomenology and assimilated into his philosophical argument structure.Meanwhile,the corporal spatiality is also valued by Merleau-Ponty,which follows the same temporal logic.It is not easy to locate Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of time directly while such style in his thought exactly represents his critique for the path of "purely" analyzing time in traditional philosophy.With the development of relevant arguments,the phenomenology of time assimilated into his philosophical strategy will be gradually emerged.This dissertation is dedicated to research the internal logic of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology in terms of "time",that is,to illuminate the intrinsic function of"temporality" as key in Merleau-Ponty's whole phenomenological strategy and based on this to clarify a crucial path of comprehending Merleau-Ponty's early phenomenology and late phenomenology.First of all,with the analysis of Husserl's"phenomenology of consciousness of internal time" the relationship between the intrinsic presupposition of natural attitude and the "time" as a term in "objective thought" will be revealed in the background of the debate between naturalism and phenomenology.On one hand,it can elucidate the role of phenomenological time in establishing objective time.On the other hand,it can clarify the deep motivation and reason why there exists a philosophical opposition between phenomenological principle and natural attitude.Based on this,the thesis will locate Merleau-Ponty's"neutral" phenomenology attitude between consciousness dimension and existential situation and focus on his problem landscape in phenomenology.After that,with the emergence of existential field and of its intrinsic temporal elements in their "debate"with empiricism and intellectualism,the rationality from "objective body" to"phenomenal body" and "sensation" to "perception" will be brought to light.Thus,together with Merleau-Ponty's early clarification of "nature",the beginning logic of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of time embodied in his strategy"phenomenologization of nature" will be revealed as well.Secondly,it is important to study Merleau-Ponty's "reappraisal"(under the influence of existential dimension)for Husserl's temporality of consciousness.A comparison of the comprehension of time between Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger and Sartre will also be provided in this stage.Besides,based on the "ambiguity" as intersection point,it is also a crucial step to analyze the internal temporality concealed in phenomenal body from the horizon of corporeal behavior and perceptual field.These steps can help us to establish the argument that Merleau-Ponty inherited the core of Husserl's phenomenology of consciousness of internal time and developed this temporality through the body-subject as anchorage of existence.At the same time,the situational dimension of existential body should not be neglected.Phenomenology will still contain the risk of falling back into consciousness philosophy if subject neglects "depth" and keeps the aboriginal aspiration of "viewing the world from nowhere”.Therefore,although criticizing the principle "spatialization of time",that is,rejecting the primacy of space,Merleau-Ponty is still aware of the necessity of bringing corporeal spatiality into his problem landscape.According to the intrinsic relevance between perceptual temporality and corporeal spatiality,the precondition of corporeal temporality will be revealed,that is,perceived world and "spatio-temporality of perception".These two terms include many crucial factors such as body,perception,temporality,spatiality and so on,which also implies the possibility of natural milieu and the ontological turn of nature in Merleau-Ponty's late thought.Thirdly,with the basic question "where is body from" unsolved,the tension between corporeal temporality and temporality of consciousness is increasingly intensifying so Merleau-Ponty at this stage is devoted to study the possibility of "recasting" the anchorage of existence through "nature".Further,he from the perspective of ontology tries to transcend the temporality of consciousness and the corporeal temporality mentioned.Temporality in this situation is emerged as a kind of whole structure of time and evolved to be a temporal schema of nature in the name of "chiasme",a temporality of nature.In this process,the temporal schema is participated by "nature" in the sense of phenomenology and melted within the matrix of nature.Moreover,based on the research of the concept"nature" in Merleau-Ponty's early and late thought,the development of temporality in these three stages corresponds with his "retrospective" strategy of phenomenologization of nature,which also indicates a possible project of"meta-phenomenology".