ABSTRACT
This chapter explores several differences between phenomenological and Newtonian conceptions of space. It attempts to identify and clarify the indirect idealization of geometric conceptions of space to the embodied habituation of particular places. Geometric conceptions of spatiality lose their logical authenticity through an uncritical abstraction from the embodied habituation involved in perception. The differences between embodied habituation and geometric space can initially be indicated by calling attention to some of the peculiar ways in which a bodily first-person perspective is located and embedded in a concrete lived situation. Newton’s distinction between the relative spaces of ordinary life and the idealized space of geometry finds its authenticity through an account of the one-sided founded relation of the concept of geometric space as a homogeneous system of univocal locations to environed embodiment. The chapter outlines the phenomenological idealization involved in the concept of geometric space through a contrast between a lived and objectively spatial body.
