The Ontology of Becoming and the Ethics of Particularity

By M. C. Dillon
Edited by Lawrence Hass

“Dillon was a force in Continental philosophy in the US for more than four decades.… This volume will keep his voice and thought alive for years to come.”

Galen Johnson, Professor of Philosophy, University of Rhode Island and General Secretary, International Merleau-Ponty Circle

M. C. Dillon (1938–2005) was widely regarded as a world-leading Merleau-Ponty scholar. His book Merleau-Ponty’s Ontology (1988) is recognized as a classic text that revolutionized the philosophical conversation about the great French phenomenologist. Dillon followed that book with two others: Semiological Reductionism, a critique of early-1990s linguistic reductionism, and Beyond Romance, a richly developed theory of love. At the time of his death, Dillon had nearly completed two further books to which he was passionately committed. The first one offers a highly original interpretation of Nietzsche’s ontology of becoming. The second offers a detailed ethical theory based on Merleau-Ponty’s account of carnal intersubjectivity. The Ontology of Becoming and the Ethics of Particularity collects these two manuscripts written by a distinguished philosopher at the peak of his powers—manuscripts that, taken together, offer a distinctive and powerful view of human life and ethical relations.

M. C. Dillon (1938–2005) was Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University. He was the author of Merleau-Ponty’s Ontology, Semiological Reductionism: A Critique of the Deconstructionist Movement in Philosophy, and Beyond Romance. He served as the General Secretary of the International Merleau-Ponty Circle from 1985 to 2005.

Lawrence Hass is a professor of humanities at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where he teaches philosophy and theater arts. He is the author of Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy and Transformations: Creating Magic Out of Tricks. He is coeditor of Rereading Merleau-Ponty: Essays Across the Continental-Analytic Divide and From the 18th Century to the Present: Performance Magic on the Western Stage.