Maurice Merleau-Ponty did not author an ethic, and yet it is possible to extend his ontological descriptions to an ethic similar to that espoused by post modern thinkers. It is even possible to distill an environmental ethic, or at least, one of consideration of the more-than-human, from his work. This paper attempts to do some preliminary work in light of this, and lays some groundwork for the future direction of an environmental ethic inspired by a Merleau-Pontian ontology. At the same time, it challenges the popularised view of Merleau-Ponty espoused by David Abram – viz., of Merleau-Ponty as an animist – and properly situates Merleau Ponty.
AbramDavid1996. The Spell of the Sensuous.New York: Vintage.
2.
BoltanskiLuc1999. Distant Suffering, trans. BurchellGraham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3.
CaputoJohn D.1993. Against Ethics.Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
4.
CritchleySimon1999. The Ethics of Deconstruction: Derrida and Levinas.West Layfayette, IN: Purdue University Press.
5.
DerridaJacques1995. The Gift of Death, trans. WillsDavid. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6.
DillonM.C.1990. ‘Ecart: Reply to Claude Lefort's Flesh and Otherness’ in JohnsonGalen A. and SmithMichael B. (eds) Ontology and Alterity in Merleau-Ponty. Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press, p. 25.
7.
HamrickWilliam S. (forthcoming) ‘Merleau-Ponty's “Ethics”: An Ambiguous, Embodied logos’ in EmbreeLester (ed.) The Phenomenological Tradition in Moral Philosophy.Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publications.
8.
LevinasEmmanuel1969. Totality and Infinity.Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.
9.
Merleau-PontyMaurice1964. Sense and Non-Sense, trans. DreyfusHubert L. and DreyfusPatricia Allen. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
10.
Merleau-PontyMaurice1968. The Visible and the Invisible.Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
11.
Merleau-Ponty, 1995. Phenomenology of Perception, trans. SmithColin. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
12.
ParkerKelly A.1996. ‘Pragmatism and Environmental Thought’, in LightAndrew and KatzEric (eds) Environmental Pragmatism.New York: Routledge.
13.
SingerPeter1975. Animal Liberation. New York: Avon Books.
