Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Political Philosophy for the Anthropocene

Throughout his entire oeuvre, Merleau-Ponty developed methods and concepts that enabled him to understand his personal and philosophical entanglement in the here and now — defined by a complex web of structures of perception, thought, politics, history, and the planetary system, in which they are all integrated. In doing so, Merleau-Ponty was ahead of his time, laying philosophical foundations that remain highly relevant to contemporary debates surrounding the anthropocene, the so-called ontological turn, and the “decolonization of thought” (Eduardo Viveiros de Castro). This article investigates some of the most central ideas of his philosophy, such as the entanglement of nature and culture or the concept of a “wild being.” It aims to demonstrate how his work not only provides key concepts for understanding the present but also embodies a distinctive philosophical attitude — a genuinely political ethos — that offers valuable insights for addressing the complex problems of a world that is no longer, or perhaps “has never been,” modern (Bruno Latour).