Space and Measure: The Appropriation of Space from an Oikological Viewpoint

Abstract

In this essay I propose to develop the problem of the appropriation of space through measurement from a perspective that relates the oikological philosophy of H.R. Sepp to the contributions of the phenomenological tradition -primarily, the thought of Husserl- and the theory of space developed by Deleuze & Guattari in Mille Plateaux; with them, also, we will recover some elements of the theory of measure developed by Alexius Meinong. In that broad context, my proposal is to understand the process of appropriation of the world, leading to the development of private property and state institutionality, as part of the more general process of objectification of the lifeworld through idealization (where geometry plays a central role). The logic of the measure, for its part, reveals an intrinsic tendency to excess that turns it into a means and expression of a colonizing violence. The argument will be organized as follows. First, I will present the central ideas of Sepp's interpretation of measure, with special emphasis on its bodily basis. Next, I will study how measurement makes possible the objectification of the world by virtue of the quantification of the primary and secondary qualities of material things, through direct and indirect measuring. Finally, it will be seen how objectified space interacts with territory through the distinction between smooth and striated space. In conceptual terms, I argue for a redefinition of measure that rejects the hylomorphic model in favor of a nomadic and morphological conceptuality.