Time, memory, institution

Merleau-Ponty's new ontology of self

David Morris, Kym MacLaren

This collection is the first extended investigation of the relation between time and memory in Maurice Merleau-Ponty's thought as a whole as well as the first to explore in depth the significance of his concept of institution. It brings the French phenomenologist's views on the self and ontology into contemporary focus. Time, Memory, Institution argues that the self is not a self-contained or self-determining identity, as such, but is gathered out of a radical openness to what is not self, and that it gathers itself in a time that is not merely a given dimension, but folds back upon, gathers, and institutes itself.Access to previously unavailable texts, in particular Merleau-Ponty's lectures on institution and expression, has presented scholars with new resources for thinking about time, memory, and history.