Mariana Larison

Argentinian phenomenologist working on Merleau-Ponty's institution-concept, philosophy of history, and dialectic. Author of L'être en forme (2016) and Vers une phénoménologie de l'institution. Avec et au-delà de Merleau-Ponty (Zetabooks 2023). Contributor of chapter 11 — "About 'an Unprecedented Theoretical Revolution': the Threads of a Weft" — to *Merleau-Ponty: Institution-Ontology-Politics* (Brill 2026). The chapter introduces Brazilian philosopher Marilena Chauí's 2009 USP course interpretation of MP into Anglophone scholarship: that MP enacts an "unprecedented theoretical revolution" by inverting Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics VI ranking of theory over praxis (theory henceforth points to the possible, praxis institutes the necessary).

Key Points

  • Author of L'être en forme (2016) on MP's late ontology and Vers une phénoménologie de l'institution (Zetabooks 2023), the institution-paradigm reading of late MP that informs her chapter 11 in MIOP 2026.
  • Chapter 11 contribution: introduces Marilena Chauí's 2009 USP course manuscript Merleau-Ponty e a política into Anglophone reception.
  • Distinctive theses (in chapter 11): (i) MP's political philosophy must be read as situated within philosophy of history, not autonomous "the political"; (ii) following Chauí, MP enacts an "unprecedented theoretical revolution" by inverting Aristotle on theory/praxis (theory points to possible; praxis institutes necessary); (iii) trans-temporality is the ontological condition for this inversion ("the past that could have been otherwise"); (iv) "weft" as governing metaphor: politics-institution-time form an inseparable conceptual weave; (v) MP's "institution" is genuine conceptual move via Durkheim/Mauss/Hauriou, not just translation of Stiftung.
  • Cited in saintaubert-2006-vers-une-ontologie-indirecte (and elsewhere) for institution-and-social-thought.
  • Cited by Pagan (mendoza-canales-2026-institution-ontology-politics ch. 2) for "tragic incompleteness" framing of late MP's transitional ontology.

Connections