Taylor Knight, Merleau-Ponty and the Essence of Nature: A Return to Elemental Symbolism – Edinburgh University Press, 2024

Reconfigures our concept of nature through the concept of the element

• Evaluates and builds upon Merleau-Ponty’s contribution to the twentieth century return to the Greek idea of nature as a dynamic principle
• Utilizes the phenomenological tradition to offer a new interpretation of the relationship between philosophy and its origin in mythological modes of thought
• Integrates Merleau-Ponty into the history of philosophy
• Articulates a new ontology for the ecological age
• Presents the first book-length study of a key concept in Merleau-Ponty’s late thought: the idea of being as element

Taylor Knight reveals the way in which phenomenology initiates a return to ontology construed through a dialectical relationship between being and element. Within phenomenology’s return to the elemental, Merleau-Ponty’s late philosophy is a key locus, opening critical paths forward into an ontology for the ecological age. With reference to his phenomenological forebears – Heidegger, Husserl, Levinas – his non-phenomenological influences – Bachelard, Schelling, Freud – and his dialogue with Greek thought – Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle – Knight shows what is authentically new in Merleau-Ponty’s late ontology.