MP's open question at PbP [136(11)] ("si le sémantique est de même ordre que le diacritique") is genealogically resolved in his 1960 *Origin of Geometry* commentary, which shows that the semantic order is itself diacritically grounded ("sensible et historique") — making the semantic an instance of, not a successor to, the diacritical
ID: semantic-grounded-in-diacritical-pbp-1960 Title: MP's open question at PbP [136(11)] ("si le sémantique est de même ordre que le diacritique") is genealogically resolved in his 1960 Origin of Geometry commentary, which shows that the semantic order is itself diacritically grounded ("sensible et historique") — making the semantic an instance of, not a successor to, the diacritical Status: candidate Confidence: medium Claim type: genealogical Created: 2026-05-16 Updated: 2026-05-16 Sources: merleau-ponty-2020-probleme-de-la-parole, merleau-ponty-2002-husserl-limits, franck-robert Wiki homes: stiftung, franck-robert, indirect-language
Claim
MP's Le problème de la parole (1953-54) closes with an explicit open question: at PbP [136(11)], in the marginalia on the cours's two conclusions, MP asks whether "le sémantique est de même ordre que le diacritique" — i.e., whether the kind of meaning we call "semantic" (referring, true-or-false) is the same kind as the diacritical-value meaning Saussure analyzes. The question is left unresolved in the cours. Robert's postface §6 (p. 261-262) reads MP's 1960 Origin of Geometry commentary as the genealogical resolution of this PbP open question: "il faudra dire avec L'origine de la géométrie telle que l'interprète Merleau-Ponty, que l'ordre du sémantique se noue toujours sur un ordre plus fondamental – qui est diacritique – sensible et historique : il est en ce sens lui-même diacritique." The 1960 commentary shows that the semantic order — including the idealities of geometry that Husserl had taken as paradigmatically semantic — is itself diacritically constituted ("sensible et historique"); semantic order is therefore an instance of diacritical order, not a successor to it. This is a genealogical thesis spanning PbP 1953-54 → L'origine de la géométrie 1960.
Evidence
- merleau-ponty-2020-probleme-de-la-parole — direct anchor for the question. PbP [136(11)] marginalia: the open question is explicit. Surrounding text PbP 135–[138(11)] develops the diacritical case but reserves the semantic question.
- merleau-ponty-2002-husserl-limits — Husserl at the Limits of Phenomenology contains MP's 1960 Origin of Geometry commentary. The text proper is where Robert reads the resolution. Targeted raw-source check required of PbP [136(11)] read against the 1960 commentary's semantic-diacritical passages.
- franck-robert — postface §6 to PbP (pp. 261-262). Robert is the editor of both PbP and the 1960 Origin of Geometry notes; his cross-document reading carries genealogical weight as artifact-anchoring evidence.
- stiftung — the 1960 commentary deploys Stiftung as the mechanism whereby the diacritical-sensible-historical produces what looks like semantic stability; Stiftung is the conceptual hinge of the resolution.
Counterpressure / Limits
- The 1960 Origin of Geometry commentary is itself fragmentary lecture notes, not a polished statement. Reading them as "resolving" a 1953-54 open question may be more interpretive labor than archival fact. Robert as editor is performing genealogical reconstruction.
- MP may have considered the question still open in 1961. V&I has scattered material on the semantic-diacritical question; whether MP held that he had resolved the question in the 1960 commentary, or whether he held the question still open, is itself contested.
- The semantic-diacritical distinction is itself unstable. What MP means by "le sémantique" at PbP [136(11)] is not the contemporary semantic-vs-pragmatic linguistic-philosophy distinction. The wiki should be careful not to project later semantic-pragmatic frameworks back onto MP's marginalia.
- General Rule 18 (artifact conservatism / retrospective relevance) applies. Promoting this candidate to
liverequires a targeted raw-source check of PbP [136(11)] and of the 1960 Origin of Geometry lecture-notes passage Robert appeals to — the wiki's merleau-ponty-2002-husserl-limits page should be verified to contain the semantic-diacritical material before the claim is promoted.
Payoff
If supportable, the claim resolves one of PbP's most cited open questions — the wiki has multiple references to "the semantic-vs-diacritical handoff" as an open question; this claim's payoff is making explicit that MP himself answered it in the 1960 Origin of Geometry course, and the form of the answer (semantic-as-instance-of-diacritical-sensible-historical). This sharpens stiftung (now the conceptual mechanism of the resolution), indirect-language (now the linguistic genus of the resolution), and franck-robert (Robert's most substantive cross-document interpretive move is captured as a wiki claim). For the wiki's genealogical layer (per General Rule 18, the 1953-55 transition zone), this claim adds a second anchor — PbP → 1954-55 Institution (already captured) and now PbP → 1960 Origin of Geometry on the semantic-diacritical question.
Status History
- 2026-05-16 — created as
candidateduring the PbP ingest addendum (treating Robert postface as a scholarly text in its own right). 3-test gate evaluation: (1) Contestable: yes — the rival reading would say MP did not resolve the question in 1960 and that V&I leaves it open. (2) Evidence anchored: yes — PbP [136(11)], the 1960 commentary's general orientation, Robert postface §6. (3) Counterpressure: 1960-fragmentary-text caveat, V&I-may-still-be-open caveat, semantic-distinction-unstable caveat, General-Rule-18 targeted-check requirement. Recommendation: hold ascandidate; targeted raw-source check of PbP [136(11)] and the 1960 Origin of Geometry lecture-notes semantic-diacritical passages required before promotion tolive.