Philosophie und Engagement

Abstract This essay examines the friendship and ‘rupture’ between Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Paul Sartre. By analysing the brief but philosophically rich correspondence from 1953, it shows that the rupture was by no means caused solely by personal sensitivities, but by profound political and philosophical differences. The correspondence and published texts from this period shed light on two fundamental ways of determining the relationship between philosophy and politics, two irreconcilable basic positions on how philosophical engagement can be understood and practised.