Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology, and Space

Citing clinical studies that demonstrate a sharp distinction between one's physical gesture to another and the same motion performed idly or for mere exercise, Merleau-Ponty proposes the heterogeneity of two corresponging concepts of space, inter-subjective and intra-subjective, respectively. On his theory, the former is fundamental and the latter derivative, and he characterizes the inter-subjective as 'actual' and concrete', but the intra-subjective as 'virtual', 'abstract', 'reflective', and, even, 'non-existent', presumably another critical nod towards Sartre. But, such speculative interpretation of the relation between the two arbitrarily diverges from Phenomenological description, so other systematizations are possible. Instead, for example, intra-subjective space can be conceived as primary, either as implicit in any given inter-subjective situation, or, at least, as the explicit basis of a possible novel reconstruction of space. However, such an alternative ordering of the two spaces reveals a concept of Space that is prior to and independent of either of them. For, it construes inter-subjective space as outside of intra-subjective space, and, according to e. g. Formaterialism, as has been previously discussed, 'outside of' is the essence of Space, not as a given static relation, but as a concomitant of an Excession, e. g. of any extending of a given space, such as the extending of intra-subjective space to inter-subjective space. Furthermore, since the latter extension is the origin of one's comportment towards others, by suppressing it, Merleau-Ponty thereby contributes to the pervasive marginalization of Ethics by Phenomenologists.