[1] Unlike the straight line, this space involves the so-called "preferred paths", which serve as a compromise of different domains that include shortest distance, security, minimal work, and maximum experience.
[1] The German gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin first introduced this concept in the early part of the 20th century prior to his exile in the United States.
[2] As a measurement system, the hodological space was used by Lewin to expand the nonquantitative but mathematical representation of structure and position in psychology so that it includes the dynamic and vectorial aspects of the field.
[6] Some authors cite the affinity of hodological space with elements in ancient Greek theater such as the skene structure, which connects onstage and offstage areas; the ekkyklema, a contraption that allowed "inside-out" disclosures; and, the eisodoi, which lead to and from the distance.
[7] The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre likewise pulls from Lewin's concept in his essay, "Sketch for a Theory of Emotions," wherein he depicts the phenomenological sense or experience of lived-space as being "hodological" in nature.
"[9] To make this concrete - when in an environment, say a room, one has a sense of the surrounding rooms, what is in them, what is available to use, what is not, what are the different pathways of action and threat, or where blockages might occur, wherein the actual degree and level to which these possible dynamics come to play within a singular moment of experience, one that is being experienced by an agent right now, in this place, will vary in accordance with the projects and plans of that agent (e.g. a bank robber, a worker, a customer, and a police officer all in the exact same bank).
Hence Sartre's use of "Hodological" is trying to hit upon this lived-existential and subjective sense of lived-space that is distinct from scientific, objective, and measurable space, as assumed from a 3rd person perspective.
It is the basis of his argument that the individual is characterized through intentional and goal-directed activity - that goals or valences are positive if agents are drawn to them and negative if they are avoided.