Child Psychology and Pedagogy: The Sorbonne Lectures 1949-1952

by Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Talia Welsh (Translator)

Maurice Merleau-Ponty is one of the few major phenomenologists to engage extensively with empirical research in the sciences, and the only one to examine child psychology with rigor and in such depth. His writings have recently become increasingly influential, as the findings of psychology and cognitive science inform and are informed by phenomenological inquiry.

Merleau-Ponty’s Sorbonne lectures of 1949 to 1952 are a broad investigation into child psychology, psychoanalysis, pedagogy, phenomenology, sociology, and anthropology. They argue that the subject of child psychology is critical for any philosophical attempt to understand individual and intersubjective existence. Talia Welsh’s new translation provides Merleau-Ponty’s complete lectures on the seminal engagement of phenomenology and psychology.

Genres: Psychology, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger in addition to being closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. At the core of Merleau-Ponty's philosophy is a sustained argument for the foundational role that perception plays in understanding the world as well as engaging with the world. Like the other major phenomenologists Merleau-Ponty expressed his philosophical insights in writings on art, literature, and politics; however Merleau-Ponty was the only major phenomenologist of the first half of the Twentieth Century to engage extensively with the sciences, and especially with descriptive psychology. Because of this engagement, his writings have become influential with the recent project of naturalizing phenomenology in which phenomenologists utilize the results of psychology and cognitive science.

Merleau-Ponty was born in Rochefort-sur-Mer, Charente-Maritime. His father was killed in World War 1 when Merleau-Ponty was 3. After secondary schooling at the lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, Maurice Merleau-Ponty became a student at the École Normale Supérieure, where he studied alongside Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Simone Weil. He passed the agrégation in philosophy in 1930.

Merleau-Ponty first taught at Chartres, then became a tutor at the École Normale Supérieure, where he was awarded his doctorate on the basis of two important books: La structure du comportement (1942) and Phénoménologie de la Perception (1945).

After teaching at the University of Lyon from 1945 to 1948, Merleau-Ponty lectured on child psychology and education at the Sorbonne from 1949 to 1952. He was awarded the Chair of Philosophy at the Collège de France from 1952 until his death in 1961, making him the youngest person to have been elected to a Chair.

Besides his teaching, Merleau-Ponty was also political editor for Les Temps Modernes from the founding of the journal in October 1945 until December 1952.

Aged 53, he died suddenly of a stroke in 1961, apparently while preparing for a class on Descartes. He was buried in Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Reviews

[Sean Legnini · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of notes from lectures given by Merleau-Ponty at the Sorbonne between 1949-1952. In it, you can follow along courses taught by Merleau-Ponty including aspects of the courses where he must go into detail about psychology and pedagogy theories developed by the likes of Freud, Piaget, Guillaume, etc. For each, in Merleau-Pontian style, he begins by explaining in depth the aspects of the theory before providing his (sometimes scathing) critique of them. Sprinkled throughout the book, you'll be able to identify Merleau-Ponty's specific philosophy if you are a seasoned reader of his work, otherwise it can sometimes be difficult to tell how much of the writing is a Merleau-Ponty thought vs a thought from one of the theorists he is presenting.

It's interesting to read a book like this. Clearly there are parts of the book where Merleau-Ponty is slogging through a syllabus but there are plenty of points where Merleau-Ponty reveals his philosophical magic, reminding us to return to lived, embodied experience. The language is accessible if you have already incorporated phenomenological thought into your body schema, but otherwise can be tricky in true-phenomenological style. It is important to note that Merleau-Ponty didn't actually write this, instead it is a collection of notes, syllabi, and other artifacts that were collected, synthesized, and approved by Merleau-Ponty for publishing.

If you're looking for insights on child psychology and pedagogy, this is probably not the book. True to the time (and especially French philosophy) there is lots of talk about sexuality, puberty, the "savage mind", etc. that frankly isn't worth your time. If you're interested in Merleau-Ponty, how he thinks, how he uses psychology to complete his phenomenology and vice versa, and what his years teaching at the Sorbonne were like, then I'd say this is an important read. I read this alongside my advisor and we often found ourselves joking that Merleau-Ponty would say something absolutely profound about pedagogy and then a paragraph or two later kill the vibe with pages upon pages about the Oedipus complex.

[Kyrill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I came to this thinking that phenomenologists don't have anything to say about pedagogy. I still think this. If reading Piaget you thought, "I wish he spent more time on anal sadism" then maybe this is for you. It's full of cringe inducing psychoanalysis of primitive people and their chaotic masturbating mothers and entirely abstract discussions of imagined children. Perhaps mixing the Mirror Stage with a richer consideration of embodiment was innovative at the time but it's ultimately pretty thin here. I know Merleu-Ponty got rid of all this Talcott Parsons stuff later.

The Husserl critique in the middle is good, as with all the stuff when he's on home ground, but a pedagogy it does not make. If you want a helpful and thorough critique of Piaget and Koffka for pedagogy, read Vygotsky. He is prevented from offering a pedagogy from the start since he thinks perception precedes intelligence in driving development through imitation. As Tomasello among others have now shown, this is empirically false. I think he just doesn't care about kids very much.