In this important new book, Diana Coole shows how existential phenomenology illuminates and enlivens our understanding of politics. Merleau-PontyOs focus on embodied experience allows us to approach political life in a manner that is both critical and engaged. With breadth of vision and penetrating insight, Coole demonstrates that political questions were always central to Merleau-PontyOs philosophical project. Her examination of his complete body of work presents us with a rigorous philosophy that maintains our capacities for agency despite moving beyond a philosophy of the subject.

Chapter 1 Situating and Reading Merleau-Ponty as a Political Thinker Part 2 The Critique of Rationalism Chapter 3 A Crisis of Modernity? Chapter 4 The Critiques of Ideology, Liberalism, and Capitalism Chapter 5 Adventures and Misadventures of the Dialectic Part 6 In Pursuit of the Interworld Chapter 7 Phenomenology as Critical Theory Chapter 8 Living History, Practising Politics Chapter 9 Negativity, Agency, and the Return to Ontology Part 10 The Politics of the Body, the Flesh of the Political Chapter 11 The Phenomenology of the Sexed/Gendered Body and the Metaphorics of the Flesh Chapter 12 The Flesh of the Political After Anti-Humanism