Francisco Bergamin Rodrigues

This Master’s research aims to undertake a theoretical and conceptual comparison between Merleau-Ponty and Spinoza regarding their respective ontological formulations. Considering the different approaches and philosophical contexts of their major works addressing the question of being and their notions of Nature, the study seeks the possibility of an interpretation in which their intentions may be viewed under the same philosophical horizon. It is conjectured that the conception of Nature formulated in the Collège de France courses, and its connection with the ontology in The Visible and the Invisible, must address the similarities it shares with the notion of Immanent Nature in the Ethics. The Raw or Wild Being, manifest in the perceptually accessible sensible world, closely resembles Spinoza’s Deus sive Natura. Both ground their thought in a broad critique of Cartesian dualism and aspire to an ontological link between the corporeal and the spiritual, as expressions of a Being present in all beings.