La The Relationship between Phenomenology and Sciences in The Structure of Behaviour. Merleau-Ponty and the Project of Naturalizing Phenomenology

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to argue that the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and mainly The Structure of Behavior, can be considered as a precursor of the project of naturalization of phenomenology. For this purpose, it will present each of the five possible paths to undertake such a project (stipulated in Naturalizing Phenomenology), and their compatibility with the position of the phenomenologist will be simultaneously evaluated. In order to justify the proposed comparison, it will suggest that the central theses of the mentioned paths can be recognized, although formulated from different theoretical frameworks, in the positions of the authors with which Merleau-Ponty discusses. We conclude that the Merleau-Pontian approach can be characterized as a transit from the third way, called mutual constraining, towards the fourth one, consisting in an enlargement of the concept of nature.