ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book is set out a radically alternative view, to suggest that Merleau-Ponty should, in fact, be seen as a proto-posthumanist thinker: someone who believes in a fluid definition of the individual self, or subject, as both dependent on and inseparable from its natural and cultural surroundings. It is organized according to broad architectural themes, following a cyclical and iterative pattern, as it is almost impossible to present Merleau-Ponty's ideas in any kind of straightforward linear sequence. The book develops the key elements of Merleau-Ponty's work in relation to questions of space, form and materiality in architecture. It highlights the more radical and creative implications for design of what he described as the gradual emergence of reason out of bodily experience. Merleau-Ponty's work did write several lengthy and significant articles on other forms of creative expression, most notably on painting and literature.
