Merleau-Ponty: Space, Place, Architecture

Patricia M. Locke · Rachel McCann

Jan 2016 · Series in Continental Thought Book 40 · Ohio University Press

About this ebook

Phenomenology has played a decisive role in the emergence of the discourse of place, now indispensable to many disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, and the contribution of Merleau-Ponty’s thought to architectural theory and practice is well established. Merleau-Ponty: Space, Place, Architecture is a vibrant collection of original essays by twelve eminent philosophers who mine Merleau-Ponty’s work to consider how we live and create as profoundly spatial beings. The resulting collection is essential to philosophers and creative artists as well as those concerned with the pressing ethical issues of our time.

Each contributor presents a different facet of space, place, or architecture. These essays carve paths from Merleau-Ponty to other thinkers such as Irigaray, Deleuze, Ettinger, and Piaget. As the first collection devoted specifically to developing Merleau-Ponty’s contribution to our understanding of place and architecture, this book will speak to philosophers interested in the problem of space, architectural theorists, and a wide range of others in the arts and design community.

Contributors: Nancy Barta-Smith, Edward S. Casey, Helen Fielding, Lisa Guenther, Galen A. Johnson, Randall Johnson, D. R. Koukal, Suzanne Cataldi Laba, Patricia M. Locke, Glen Mazis, Rachel McCann, David Morris, and Dorothea Olkowski.

About the author

Patricia M. Locke is a tutor at St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland, where she teaches across the curriculum. She writes in the areas of philosophy of art and literature, primarily with a phenomenological approach.

Rachel McCann is a professor of architecture emerita and Grisham Master Teacher at Mississippi State University. Her work focuses on the embodied experience and design of architecture as it intersects with Merleau-Ponty’s concept of flesh.