Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Maurice Halbwachs: existential choice as a basis of historical consciousness

The article reconstructs the idea of existential choice as a basis for the formation of cultural and historical consciousness in the existential and metaphysical project of Merleau-Ponty and socio-humanitarian concept of historical memory of M. Halbwachs. The authors conclude that despite the differences in the philosophical foundations Merleau-Ponty and Halbwachs were looking for a correlation between individual and collective memory treated as a basis for the formation of historical consciousness.