ABSTRACT
One of the basic principles of Gestalt psychology by which Merleau-Ponty was strongly influenced is the idea that perceives objects as distinct wholes, and not as collections of separate sense data. The relationship of visual and tactile sensations was already a theme in philosophy prior to Merleau-Ponty. It appeared within the eighteenth-century Empiricist tradition thanks to the earlier writings of John Locke, specifically his exchange of letters with William Molyneux on what became known as the 'Molyneux Problem'. In the visual arts in the same period Merleau-Ponty's influence was more direct and explicit, on both artists and critics concerned with the experience of Minimalist painting and sculpture. In architecture this impact took much longer to develop, partly due to the dominance of the work of Martin Heidegger. Interestingly, there is another overlap in relation to one of Merleau-Ponty's key sources, in the take-up of Gestalt psychology in architectural theory in the 1960s.
