Ontology, Ethics and Sentir

Ontology, Ethics, and Sentir: Properly Situating Merleau-Ponty

Melissa Clarke

Environmental Values 11(2002): 211-225. doi: 10.3197/096327102129341064

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.

---

KEYWORDS: Merleau-Ponty, David Abram, Peter Singer, ontology, environmental ethics, moral pluralism

CITATIONS in other Environmental Values articles:

Can Merleau-Ponty's Notion of 'Flesh' Inform or even Transform Environmental Thinking?. Isis Brook

---

This article is available online (PDF format) from Ingenta Journals. Access is free if your institution subscribes to Environmental Values. Reprints of this article can be ordered from ingenta or the British Library Document Supply Service

Contact the publishers for subscriptions and back numbers of Environmental Values.