SOURCE: Dauenhauer, Bernard P. “One Central Link between Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy of Language and His Political Thought.” Tulane Studies in Philosophy 29 (December 1980): 57-80.

In the following essay, Dauenhauer examines the place of silence in both Merleau-Ponty's linguistic theories and his thoughts on political action.

Through much of his career, Merleau-Ponty was concerned both with the topic of language and with the topic of politics. But he himself never explicitly connected these two strands of thought. Nonetheless, at least one central link binds these strands together and, in so doing, strengthens each of them. This link is provided by his recognition of the importance of the phenomenon of silence.

I will begin this essay by noting something of the range of the contexts in which Merleau-Ponty employs the term ‘silence’ and its cognates. From this survey it will be clear that Merleau-Ponty did not explicitly thematize the phenomenon of silence...