David Morris

Contemporary Merleau-Ponty scholar at Concordia University (Montreal). Co-editor with Kym Maclaren of Time, Memory, Institution: Merleau-Ponty's New Ontology of Self (Ohio University Press, 2015), one of the principal English-language volumes on MP's middle-period institution courses. Morris's distinctive contribution to MP studies is his temporal reading of MP's mature ontology — and his willingness to push that reading into philosophy of physics, including quantum mechanics, where most MP scholarship hesitates.

The wiki currently houses Morris through morris-2024-wild-structure-melting-time (Chiasmi International 26, 2024), where he develops the concepts of melting-time (temps fondant), wild-structure, processioning, ontogenesis-of-time, and imperfecting-expression. Morris is also referenced in the volant page (Saint Aubert cites Morris p. 111 for the exposed body register that the volant operates with).

Key Points

  • Temporal reading of MP's mature ontology. Where most readings of late MP center flesh, écart, or chiasm, Morris foregrounds time as the privileged ontological clue. His thesis: matter is best reconceptualized as temporal change, not spatial extension.
  • Crosses into philosophy of physics. Morris reads MP through contemporary QM (Wheeler's delayed choice, time-crystals, Smolin's temporal naturalism, QBism). Quantum systems are read as MP-style "wild structures" generating their own time-orders rather than presupposing them.
  • Recovers MP's archival engagement with physics. Morris insists that MP never abandoned the physical sciences; Lefort's editorial omissions of working notes on physics and biology obscure this. Morris cites unpublished BNF material (vol. VIII, Notes 1958-1959, p. [253]: "Janvier 1959. Pluralité des temps. Unicité du temps") as authorizing the temps fondant concept.
  • Deforms Smolin's neo-Leibnizian model. Smolin's "maximize difference" principle (with identity of indiscernibles as the operative rule) is replaced in Morris's reading by "imperfecting expression" — the imperfection of expression is what enables being to be indeterminate, to do the work of expressing.
  • Bergson-anticipates-wave-particle-duality reading. Morris reads MM 226, 230 on red light's "contracted" vibrations as Bergson's 1896 anticipation of wave-particle duality conceptualized temporally — not the wave spatially juxtaposed with the particle but the protracted "when" of the wave vs the contracted past punching into the now as particle. Bergson "doesn't get the energy part."

Major Works (consulted by the wiki)

  • 2024: "Wild Structure and Melting Time: On Quantum Mechanics and Matter as Change in Merleau-Ponty's Temporal Ontology," Chiasmi International 26, pp. 157-173. (Full ingest: morris-2024-wild-structure-melting-time.)
  • 2015: Co-edited with Kym Maclaren, Time, Memory, Institution: Merleau-Ponty's New Ontology of Self, Ohio University Press. (Not in raw/. Glen Mazis's contribution to this volume is cited in Morris 2024 note 10 — "The Depths of Time in the World's Memory of Self.")

Connections

  • develops melting-time — the article's signature concept (extending MP's unpublished note).
  • develops wild-structure — quantum systems as MP-style structures.
  • develops processioning — neologism for the temporal-distributive structure of QM dynamics.
  • develops ontogenesis-of-time — local generation of time-orders.
  • develops imperfecting-expression — signature deformation of Smolin's "maximize difference."
  • extends wild-being — applies wild being to philosophy of physics.
  • reads Institution and Passivity — IP 36/7 "time is the model of institution itself" as authorizing temporal ontogenesis.
  • transposes the Humanism and Terror (1969, p. 94) traveler image onto photons — see morris-2024-wild-structure-melting-time §"What's Not Obvious."
  • engages henri-bergson — Matière et mémoire MM 74, 226, 230. Morris's distinctive Bergson-as-proto-philosopher-of-temporal-ontology reading.
  • deforms Smolin's neo-Leibnizian model.
  • transforms QBism — see indirect-ontology §"Connections" for the Morris-via-QBism resonance.

Open Questions

  • Wider corpus: this entity page rests on a single ingested source. Morris's earlier work on time, memory, and institution (2015 co-edited volume; previous Chiasmi essays) would extend the wiki's reading of his project. Flag for backlog acquisition.
  • Reception: how is Morris's quantum-mechanical extension received in MP studies? The wiki has no secondary engagement with Morris (e.g., reviews, responses).
  • Relation to other Concordia philosophers: Concordia houses several MP-adjacent philosophers; whether Morris's reading converges with or departs from his colleagues' is currently unknown to the wiki.

Sources