Dr. Douglas Low

We should revisit Merleau-Ponty’s late essay “From Mauss to Levi-Strauss,” for it is still well worth reading, especially since it provides a viable way between the extremes of modernism and postmodernism. The essay/chapter explicitly challenges modernism, embraces a structural, dialectical approach, but does not go as far as many postmodernists who (after Merleau-Ponty’s untimely death in 1961) “run” with structural themes as fast and as far as they can go. The balance of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy remains one of its most attractive qualities, for his balanced explanations often provide greater clarity than his more extreme competitors.