• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.142
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• pp.145-164
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• 2017

In his Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau-Ponty raises a question of why he has to ask what phenomenology is again. This study assumes that the question can be answered in a new understanding of the "nature" concept and finds its possible grounds in the nature concepts of Schelling and Merleau-Ponty. Schelling and Merleau-Ponty develop philosophical thinking from a critical point of view on the Cartesian and Kantian philosophies "Thing-in-itself" by Kant is, in particular, one of important questions that has to be answered in the philosophy of Schelling since Kant further solidifies a dualistic world by leaving thing-in-itself. Schelling solves the question with the concept of identity and Merleau-Ponty solves the question with body-subject. What we notice in this article is the understanding of Shelling and Merleau-Ponty about nature. Schelling believes there are the creative activities of unconscious intelligence in nature, but spirit or intelligence in his nature concept cannot induce an existential being. Here we see that Schelling is still beyond the traditional epistemological framework. To restore the original nature of nature, we must begin with an understanding of the totality of nature. Nature must also be explained through relationships with humans. Merleau-Ponty shows the entanglement of nature and spirit through the body-subject. In Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, the body is the equivalent of nature. Understanding the forces of nature that Schelling and Merleau-Ponty are trying to show, and at the same time explaining the problem of how the mind or human beings emerge from nature, we will be able to discover the true nature of nature.