The Imaginary Dimension of the Real in Husserl’s Philosophy is a brilliant study of the notion of the imaginary (in the largest sense of the term) in the work of the founderof phenomenology: Husserl. From the central notion of “hovering before my eyes” (Husserl’s term is “Vorschweben,” which Dufourcq renders in French as “flottement”)the author seeks to find the common denominator which allows us to characterize all the forms that the imaginary takes in Husserl’s phenomenology. This point of departure allows her to analyze the classical problems of phenomenology – the questions of the other, of essence or of eidetic variation – while sketching the motifs that authorize a dialogue with subsequent thinkers, particularly, with Maurice Merleau-Ponty.RiassuntoLa dimension imaginaire du réel dans la philosophie de Husserl ci offre uno studio magistrale della nozione di immaginario, nel suo senso più vasto, così come emergeall’interno dell’opera del fondatore della fenomenologia. A partire dalla nozione centrale di “fluttuazione”, l’autore si mette in cerca di un denominatore comune attraverso cui caratterizzare tutte le forme che l’immaginario assume nella fenomenologia husserliana. Questo punto di partenza gli consente inoltre di tornare ad analizzare i problemi classici della fenomenologia – la questione dell’altro, dell’essenza o della variazione eidetica –, nonché di tratteggiare alcuni percorsi possibili in direzione di pensatori successivi, in particolare di Maurice Merleau-Ponty.

The collective works edited by Emmanuel Alloa and Adnen Jdey, Du sensible à l’oeuvre, and by Mauro Carbone, L’empreinte du visuel, meet the dual requirementimposed by reading the work of Merleau-Ponty today: on one hand, they extend the philosopher’s thought and highlight its obvious necessity in reading the mostcontemporary art; and, on the other hand, by not allowing themselves to be lulled by the gentle seduction of the writing, they emphasize the coherence of his thought andthe rigor of certain of his key concepts such as style, resumption, flesh or individuation, which are the object of precise and unpublished studies.

In his book, Emre Şan undertakes a confrontation between Merleau-Ponty and Patočka on the question of transcendence understood as a phenomenological problem,indeed as the problem of phenomenology. This approach has the great merit of identifying the meaning of being of Being as promise, on the path of an ontology beyondHusserl and Heidegger. Emre Şan’s book thus offers a very important contribution to phenomenological studies.

In his latest work, Force-Pulsion-Désir, Rudolf Bernet seeks to clarify one of the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis, that of “drive.” He engages such authorsas Aristotle, Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Freud, Husserl, Nietzsche and Lacan to better elucidate philosophically the sense of the concept of drive. The work’s argument thushighlights a kind of destiny of drive: the first moment concerns the dynamic aspect of the drive, that of force; the second is that of drive taken in its essence and truth;the third is that of desire which prolongs and sublimates the drive. The path followed in this book thus goes from the non-human to the human or, if one prefers, fromnature to subject, and interrogates their interpenetration. In contrast to naturalism and historicism, Rudolf Bernet chooses to read Freud in a resolutely philosophical way, in a way that at the same time challenges our perception of the relation between philosophy and psychoanalysis. The epistemic stakes are high. Without claiming to address every implication, we briefly retrace here the overall trajectory.

Ce volume contient la transcription de plusieurs entretiens radiophoniques : La Tribune de Paris (1946-1948), La Tribune des Temps Modernes (1947), Les Entretiens sur la philosophie (1950-52), et les longs Entretiens avec Georges Charbonnier (1959). Alors que les premiers sont malheureusement donnés sans les interventions des tiers (Sartre, Hyppolite, etc.), qui sont résumées, ceux avec Charbonnier sont livrés in extenso, y compris avec les chutes non retenues lors des émissions radio. Enfin, s’ajoutent à cet ensemble des textes de la main de Merleau-Ponty, il s’agit des interventions dans le Forum de L’Express (1954-54) qui n’avaient pas été retenues par l’auteur lorsqu’il a composé les « Propos » de Signes (1960). L’essentiel du volume est consacré à la politique, et permet de préciser le rôle que Merleau-Ponty assignait au philosophe dans la cité : celui d’un analyste qui ne cherche pas seulement à dévoiler les mensonges des idéologies, mais à montrer ce que les situations peuvent avoir d’ambigu, sans pour autant renoncer à l’idéal de liberté et de justice, par un mélange de pragmatisme et de discours de vérité qui s’adresse directement à la conscience des citoyens et non à telle classe sociale. This volume contains the transcripts of several radio interviews: La Tribune de Paris (1946-1948), La Tribune des Temps Modernes (1947), Les Entretiens sur la philosophie (1950-52), and the lengthy Entretiens avec Georges Charbonnier (1959). While the first few are unfortunately presented without the other person’s responses (Sartre, Hyppolite, etc.), which are summarized, those with Charbonnier are presented verbatim, including the slips not retained in the radio broadcasts. Finally, texts by Merleau-Ponty’s own hand are added to this collection. They are the responses in the Forum of L’Express (1954-54) that had not been retained by the author when he composed the “Propos” of Signs (1960). The bulk of the volume is dedicated to politics and enables the clarification of the role that Merleau-Ponty assigned to the philosopher in the city: that of an analyst who does not just seek to expose the falsehoods of ideologies, but to reveal the potential ambiguity in situations through a mixture of pragmatism and truth speaking that addresses itself directly to the conscience of citizens and not to a particular social class, and all of this without renouncing the ideal of liberty and justice. Questo volume contiene la trascrizione di diverse interviste e colloqui radiofonici: La Tribune de Paris (1946-1948), La Tribune des Temps Modernes (1947), Les Entretiens sur la philosophie (1950-52), e le lunghe interviste di Merleau-Ponty con Georges Charbonnier (1959). Mentre i primi colloqui sono restituiti purtroppo senza gli interventi di terzi (come ad esempio Sartre e Hyppolite, etc.), che vi si trovano solamente riassunti, le interviste con Charbonnier sono invece riportate per esteso, ivi compresi gli errori che erano stati eliminati nelle trasmissioni via radio. Completa il volume una selezione di testi di Merleau-Ponty, in cui sono raccolti gli interventi apparsi nella rubrica Forum de L’Express (1954-54), che non erano confluiti nella sezione « Propos » pubblicata dall’autore in Segni (1960). L’insieme del volume è essenzialmente dedicato alla tematica politica e permette di comprendere il ruolo che Merleau-Ponty assegnava al filosofo rispetto alla città : quello di un analista che non cerca solamente di smascherare le menzogne delle ideologie, ma anche di mostrare l’ambiguità delle circostanze, senza però rinunciare ad un ideale di libertà e di giustizia, con un miscuglio di pragmatismo e di discorso di verità che si rivolge direttamente alla coscienza dei cittadini e non a una certa classe sociale.