ABSTRACT
The inquiry into Kierkegaard’s influence on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s (1908-61) work is quite complex, since it involves further questions concerning not only the theoretical kernels of the two philosophers’ respective work but also their receptions in the history of Continental philosophy.1 Actually, one might wonder whether it is possible to define the inquiry in terms of “influence,” since Merleau-Ponty would certainly have refused to consider it as the “cause” or the “root” of a philosophical work, as he pointed out-for instance-in his essay from 1945 on Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), writing of the authentic “originality” of an artist’s creation.2
