« L’étonnement de se sentir exister » : commentaire de Derrida sur la lecture merleau-pontyenne de Maine de Biran

Our article seeks to show that Maine de Biran is at the centre of the debate linked to Derrida’s reading, notably in Le toucher, Jean-Luc Nancy, of Merleau-Ponty’s commentary on the problem of de Biran’s dissonant existence, the primordial and original feeling of astonishment at oneself. Derrida thus seeks to affirm that the entire phenomenology of perception is inspired by the philosopher of Bergerac. He surreptitiously places him at the origin of the phenomenological tradition and of a whole modern tradition that privileges the sense of touch over the sense of the senses. However, we cannot help but suggest that this Derridean interpretation of Merleau-Ponty and de Biran seems somewhat limited, even though it is legitimate, not because of Derrida’s hermeneutic limitations, but because of his approach to the authors in terms of his own thinking and conceptual lexicon. In this sense, we will endeavour to open up another possible horizon, which is not strictly Derridean, but which is based on the very idea of feeling, of being astonished and of existing, as a primitive form of access, adherence and resistance to oneself, to others and to the world. The astonishment of feeling oneself to exist will thus prove to be the condition for perceiving and embracing transcendence, in other words, the so-called Biranian “third life”.