ABSTRACT
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) was a humanist who redefined humanism. Merleau-Ponty is and is not a materialist: he does not resort to the notion of a spiritual substance to describe experience; at the same time, it is not possible for him to understand humans solely via chemistry and physics. Humanism is redefined in Merleau-Ponty as an authoritative reminder of human situation. In his first book, The Structure of Behaviour, Merleau-Ponty investigates the relation of consciousness and nature and presents a critique of ‘scientific’ psychology challenging the dualistic opposition between the ‘mental’ and the ‘physiological’. Merleau-Ponty’s uniqueness consists in taking the delicate stance of going beyond solipsism and at the same time taking subjectivity very seriously.
