Affectivity and Imagination in Merleau-Ponty: New readings

The objective of this paper is to show that the specific meaning of ``affectivity'' in Merleau-Ponty's works can be better understood by approaching its connection with the notion of ``imagination''. This strategy can be contrasted with Sartre's approach; his specific conception of consciousness locks off the relation between imagination and affectivity from the start. On the contrary, the free play of this axis, which can be analysed since the early Phenomenology of Perception, allows for the overflowing of the horizon of visibility of subjectivity toward a certain invisible. The concrete junction of imagination and affectivity then spreads out into the region of the notion of desire.