José Marcelo Ramos Siviero

Our intention is to investigate, based on the textual evidence of Descartes' presence in Merleau-Ponty's writings, gathered from his direct or indirect quotes and lateral mentions, the way whereby Merleau-Ponty reads and stands before the legacy instituted by Descartes within the History of Philosophy. Our main hypothesis is: could Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, especially its ontology, constitute itself as a criticism directed at Cartesianism? Therefore, we analyze the scattered quotes from Descartes or Cartesian philosophy throughout the texts, their maturation in the panorama of the work, in order to resume, from Descartes' reading, a notion of broad reason that allows to conceive the notion of Flesh .