Idole (anti-figuratif)

Merleau-Ponty's polemical name for the figure without fond — the image-fetish that pretends to total self-presence and thereby blocks access to the figuratif-register of being. The idole is the epistemic equivalent of Descartes' idée claire et distincte, the metaphysical equivalent of Leibniz's Dieu of survol, the political equivalent of Sartre's En-soi. As elaborated in Saint Aubert 2021 Ch VII § 3c, the idole is the anti-figuratif: whereas the figuratif RENDS VISIBLE without being visible, the idole IS VISIBLE in such a way that it blocks further visibility.

Key Points

  • The idole is figure-without-fond: it occupies the entire perceptual/conceptual field, having nothing behind it, leaving no room for the invisible-as-matrix.

  • Purpose: "un écran fétiche qui nous permet de refouler l'être" (Saint Aubert 2021, p. 300, glossing MP). The idole is psychologically functional — it defends against the "brûlante négativité" of the figuratifs.

  • MP's vocabulary for the idol: "grand diamant éternel" (SNS(foi) p. N310/G212); "le Dieu de survol de Leibniz" (OntoCart, NTontocart [127]); "l'Être qui est ce qu'il est et le néant qui n'est pas ce qu'il n'est pas" (EM1 [65]v(28)).

  • Paradoxical structure: "À la fois totalement obscur et parfaitement transparent" (Saint Aubert, p. 301). The idole is opaque because nothing can penetrate it; transparent because there is nothing to penetrate.

  • The idole kills metaphoricité: "à la fois inaccessible et pleinement figurée, l'idole ne fait signe vers rien d'autre qu'elle- même et finit inexorablement par tuer toute métaphoricité" (Saint Aubert, p. 300).

Details

The idole as refuge from the figuratifs

The figuratifs (fond, ombre, horizon, profondeur, silence) carry brûlante négativité — they are not things, and hence they trouble our desire for graspable objects. The idole is what we construct in retreat from the figuratifs:

  • Removes the fond: no background beyond the figure.
  • Removes the ombre: no shadow, hence no relief.
  • Removes the horizon: no "bords en haillons" of being.
  • Removes the silence: no inaudible depth of meaning.
  • Removes the profondeur: no "dans tous les modes de l'espace" (OE p. 65).

The idole is the figure that has shed all five figuratifs and is therefore both totally present (no absence) and totally absent of connection (no relation to what is not itself).

Three forms of idole

Saint Aubert's Ch VII § 3c identifies three cognate forms:

  1. The Cartesian idea claire et distincte: presents itself totally to the understanding, occludes the mélange de l'âme et du corps.
  2. The Sartrean En-soi: the "positivité absolue" of L'Être et le Néant p. 50 — "La négation ne saurait atteindre le noyau d'être de l'être qui est plénitude absolue et entière positivité."
  3. The Leibnizian God of survol: the maximal positivity of the perfectissimum, under whose light everything is explicable.

All three share: (a) total self-presence, (b) no fond, (c) no ontological relationship (the idole does not RELATE to anything else but subsumes). MP's analytic of the idole is continuous across "scénario cartésien", "scénario sartrien", and the Leibnizian polemic.

Against the théologie explicative

Ch VII § 3d: the idole is the object of "théologie explicative" (Saint Aubert's term in his 2008 Archives de philosophie article). This theology:

  • Treats God as a maximum of positive qualities.
  • Explains the world by reducing it to God's explicable plan.
  • Is structurally isomorphic with the substantialist metaphysics MP combats.

MP's counter-theology (the "Dieu figuratif"):

  • God as envers / ombre of our ombre.
  • God as joint ("la jointure des choses ou des mots", EP p. 49).
  • PM p. 118: "un autre nous-même, qui épouse et authentifie toute notre obscurité".
  • God as KENOSIS ("qui s'est comme rompu pour installer en lui-même le négatif", EP p. 31).

EP p. 49 as the cardinal formulation

"Il faut admettre qu'on appelle athée toute pensée qui déplace ou définit autrement le sacré, et que la philosophie, qui ne le met jamais ici ou là, comme une chose, mais à la jointure des choses ou des mots, sera toujours exposée à ce reproche sans qu'il puisse jamais la toucher." (Éloge de la philosophie, 1953)

The sacred as jointure, not as chose = the sacred as figuratif, not as idole. MP's own philosophical work is the critique of idoles and the rehabilitation of figuratifs.

The idole in the order of perception

At the perceptual level, the idole is the image stripped of écart — a "presence" without background. This is strictly impossible perceptually (all perception is écart, MSME 1953); but the idole is the IDEOLOGICAL FANTASY of such an image. The Sartrean analogon (L'Imaginaire), the Cartesian idea clara, and the Leibnizian Deus est ens perfectissimum are three cognate cases of the same ideological fantasy.

The "survol absolu"

Ruyer's phrase "survol absolu" (1946), which Gurwitsch adopts, is the epistemic correlate of the idole: the position from which everything is totally given without the knower participating. MP identifies this from MSME 1953 as impossible ("la conscience est synonyme d'imperception", MSME p. 204/[211]); the survol absolu would be a consciousness that would see without needing to perceive.

Positions

  • saintaubert-2021-etre-et-chair-ii (Ch VII § 3c-d) names the idole explicitly as the anti-figuratif; this is a contribution to MP studies. MP himself uses "idole" in scattered contexts (OE p. 36, SNS(foi), EP) without systematizing; Saint Aubert's move is to ELEVATE it to the polemical counterpart of figuratifs.
  • Jean-Luc Marion has an independent phenomenology of idol/icon (Dieu sans l'être, 1982) that overlaps structurally with MP's distinction via Saint Aubert — worth comparing though Saint Aubert does not make this connection. Marion's icon-idol distinction is theological-phenomenological (following Balthasar); MP's figuratif- idole is perceptual-ontological (following the MSME lineage).

Connections

  • contrasts with figuratifs — the figuratif rend visible while not being visible; the idole is visible while obscuring everything else. Direct polar opposites.
  • is an instance of ontologie de l'objet — the idole is the ontological form of the objet.
  • targets theologie-explicative — Leibnizian God as the idole-of- philosophy.
  • is critiqued via hyper-dialectic — bonne dialectique dissolves the idole into figure-and-fond.
  • relates to ambivalence — the idole is the "univocal" pole of ambivalence's bipolar alternation.
  • is overcome by metaphoricity — metaphor PRESUPPOSES fond; the idole KILLS metaphor.
  • structural parallel: Jean-Luc Marion's "idole" in Dieu sans l'être (1982, theological register).
  • contrasts with perceptual-faith — foi is the adhesion to figuratifs; the idole presents itself as not-requiring-faith (because totally present).

Open Questions

  • To what extent does MP's idole coincide with Heidegger's "Gestell" or the Ge-stell/Enframing of modern technology? Both are figures of totalizing presence that occlude withdrawal/figuratif. Saint Aubert does not develop this.
  • Is MP's idole extensionally coincident with Marion's idole, or are they different concepts with the same name?
  • Does MP ever apply "idole" to Schneider-type pathologies of representation? The latter would suggest the idole is not merely ideological but phenomenologically describable.

Sources

  • saintaubert-2021-etre-et-chair-ii — Ch VII § 3c "Le crépuscule des idoles" (p. 299-302); § 3d "Écriture et réécriture du sacré" (p. 302-305).
  • merleau-ponty-1961-eye-and-mind — OE p. 36 (Descartes's elimination of "le monde onirique de l'analogie").
  • merleau-ponty-1964-primacy-of-perception — EP p. 31, 49, 50 (the sacré as jointure, the idole as fétiche chose).
  • Primary archival refs via Saint Aubert: SNS(foi) p. N310/G212-213; EM1 [65]v(28); S(HoAdv) p. 306; NTontocart [127]; NTi-nd [366]; OntoCart p. 202/28. Sartre target: L'Être et le Néant p. 50.
  • Secondary: Saint Aubert, "'L'Incarnation change tout'. Merleau-Ponty critique de la 'théologie explicative'", Archives de philosophie 71 (3), 2008, p. 371-405.