Therapeutic Philosophy: Merleau-Ponty and the Struggle to Articulate Authentic Human Presence

Abstract

<p>There is no "thesis" being defended in this project. Rather, it is an attempt with rigorous articulation to discern a sense of quality in the dimension of lived co-existence. With Merleau-Ponty we will survey the felt characteristics of authentic and constituted human presence in the flow of life. In the course of a phenomenology of lived intentionality we will explore authentically in a context of philosophy, language, metaphysics, and ethics. Practicing philosophy as an "aid to self-discovery rather than a matter of strict demonstration" (Marcel, Mystery of Being p.2), we will seek to formulate an intentionality of human relationship embracing an originary experience of existential holism. We will begin to appreciate the "principle of an ethic" emerging from Merleau-Ponty's work as we teach ourselves to honor a felt sense of human intertwining. Our focus will be the felt flow of living relationship, the energetic current of shared presence that unites us as human organisms and in denial of which we may lead lives of fearful isolation, compensatory power-seeking, or life-numbing estrangement. We will be making overtures towards a therapeutic paradigm of felt oneness in relationship and universal human solidarity.</p>