Merleau-Ponty's study of the flesh of history aims to solve the debate between historical laws and historical innova-tion,a concept which he illustrates by reducing the debate initiated by Lukács to the dilemma of internal versus external rela-tions in historical discourse.He appreciates the anti-dogmatic starting point of Lukács'dialectics for advancing Weber's model of rationalization to affirm historical genesis,and yet criticizes its totality for constraining the end of history with revolutionary aims.Through the lens of phenomenological reduction,Merleau-Ponty navigates beyond these constraints of totality on histori-cal genesis,and then reduces history to the concept of"social generation"in the societal dimension,viz.the process of social institutionalization.This phenomenology integrates both individual and societal levels in the charnel reduction of the social insti-tutionalization,and thereby refreshes our understanding of history in a manner distinct from the consciousness-constituting ap-proaches.Ultimately,by revealing the generative principles in the flesh of history,the phenomenology of history propels histori-cal theory towards the innovative exploration in future practice.
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