A Phenomenological Study of the Three Dimensions—Verticality, Horizontality, and Depth—and their Role in Orientation

Abstract

All our movements presuppose our being oriented. But what does it mean for the embodied subject to be oriented in space? How is the egocentric space of the lived body connected to the larger domain of objective space? While Husserl explored how the egocentric subject comes to situate itself within intersubjectively constituted objective space, Merleau-Ponty’s further inquiry into pre-objective spatiality suggests that the embodied subject is always already oriented beyond itself, via its connections to the three dimensions of the physical world. His work on the subjective experience of depth and verticality laid the groundwork for a phenomenology of the three dimensions, which I undertake here. For each of the three dimensions—verticality, horizontality and depth—I explore the interconnections among a) the sensed dimensions of bodily space b) the dimensions of intersubjective space and c) the geometric, abstract axes of objective space. Each of the dimensions in lived space is qualitatively distinct, both as sensed in the body and perceived externally, and they differ accordingly as bearers of meaning. My primary aim is to elucidate the specific character of the dimensions in all their expressive, existential, and cultural significance; this is done first at the level of subjective, bodily spatiality and then again at the broader cultural and historical level. To this end, I look to philosophy as well as to visual art, architecture, the history of religion and myth, psychology, cognitive linguistics and neuroscience. Investigating the axes of the body in relation to the dimensions of the world means asking about orientation itself, for it lies at their nexus. I examine the role of spatial orientation in self-understanding, self-identity and memory as well as in shaping relations with the Other. Ultimately, the prevailing cultural (western) ideas of modern space and subjectivity, rooted in the cogito, prove to be in tension with a phenomenology of space and the three dimensions. The primacy of egocentricity deserves to be questioned in light of various alternate modes of spatial experience (attuned, shared) and alternate modes of orientation (allocentric, absolute). I conclude that orientation is better described as symbiotic and reciprocal, with the lived body always in relation to the world beyond itself.