Merleau-Ponty Was Not the First to Describe Gestalt as Melody

I’ve heard commentators on Merleau-Ponty’s Structure of Behavior mention a few times now that he uses the example of a melody to demonstrate the notion of gestalt.

I wanted to dedicate a short blog post to spread awareness that this was already used as a way to discuss the gestalt concept by Max Wertheimer and, before him, Christian von Ehrenfels.

I haven’t heard this acknowledged, so I think it might be worth pointing out, both for historical accuracy and credit where credit is due, and also to provide more food for thought as to the areas of overlap in the conceptualization of gestalt between Merleau-Ponty and his gestalt psychology predecessors (at least his overlap with Wertheimer, with whom I am most familiar.)

I think sometimes too stark a contrast is painted between Max Wertheimer and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Wertheimer was the most philosophical and aesthetic-minded of the gestalt psychologists. I do agree with the criticism that, in practice, the founding gestalt psychologists’ published work differed in important ways from the work of Merleau-Ponty.

Max Wertheimer talks about gestalt as melody in his Address on Gestalt Theory to the Berlin Kant Society (1924). This address is one of the references cited in Merleau-Ponty’s book, The Structure of Behavior. It’s worth reading the address to gain an understanding of Max Wertheimer’s philosophical perspective.