Natural simbolism and vinculum between nature and culture in Merleau-Ponty

• Grant number: 19/07260-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2019
• End date: December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Damon Santos Moutinho
• Grantee: Luciana Ricardi Rabi
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In The Structure of Behavior, Maurice Merleau-Ponty aims to "comprehend the relations between consciousness and nature". He considered that philosophy and the sciences, in different conceptions, would apart such terms. The philosopher finds in the notion of behavior a zone of "neutrality" in regards to them, through which he proposes to redefine them. To reunite consciouness and nature, it is necessary to take distance from the cartesian tradition ontology, that divvies consciousness and object. However, to relevant interpreters of the french thinker's work, his distance from it is not effective. Moreover, if Merleau-Ponty's analysis on the notion of behavior finds in its ultimate degree the notion of culture, it is difficult to comprehend how this articulates with that of nature. Therefore, the conceptions of nature and culture he exposes are associated to the "common ontology". On the other hand, in The Nature, a later work, his ontological revision deepens and the meaning of the terms nature and culture is no longer the same. In this phase, theses notions seem to surpass human behavior. This research is situated in this theme and divides itself in two parts: the first is a review of the nexus between "nature" and "culture" in The Structure of Behavior; the second is an analysis of their vinculum exposed in The Nature. In regards to the first, it is of our interest to understand the mentioned difficulties in which the formulation incurs. In relation to the second, we intend to investigate two points: the fundamentals of such vinculum between nature and culture in this phase of his thought; and whether it is possible for Merleau-Ponty to differ man and nature in his reflexion without falling in the scission that seems to be constituent of his previous articulation.