The Prose of the World (Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy)

The work which this author planned to call The Prose of the World, or Introduction to the Prose of the World, is unfinished. There is good reason to believe that he deliberately abandoned it and that, he had lived, he would not have completed it, at least in the form that he first outlined. Once finished, the book was to constitute the first section of a two-part work--the second would have had a more distinct metaphysical nature--whose aim was to offer us, as an extension of the Phenomenology of Perception, a theory of truth. The work that Maurice Merleau-Ponty planned to call The Prose of the World, or Introduction to the Prose of the World, was unfinished at the time of his death. The book was to constitute the first section of a two-part work whose aim was to offer, as an extension of his Phenomenology of Perception, a theory of truth. This edition's editor, Claude Lefort, has interpreted and transcribed the surviving typescript, reproducing Merleau-Ponty's own notes and adding documentation and commentary. Contents ......Page 4 Editors Preface......Page 6 Editorial Note......Page 18 Translators Introduction:......Page 20 The Prose of the World ......Page 42 1 The Specter of a Pure Language......Page 44 2 Science and the Experience of Expression......Page 50 3 The Indirect Language......Page 88 4 The Algorithm and the Mystery of Language......Page 156 5 Dialogue and the Perception of the Other......Page 172 6 Expression and the Child's Drawing......Page 188 Index......Page 194 Edited By Claude Lefort. Translated By John O'neill. Translation Of La Prose Du Monde. Includes Bibliographical References.