Geophilosophy: a new approach to the study of nature and landscape (original) (raw)

A. Haug, Visual Concepts of Human Surroundings. The Case of the Early Greek Polis (10th–7th century BC), in: A. Haug - L. Käppel - J. Müller (Hrsg.), Past Landscapes. The Dynamics of Interaction between Society, Landscape, and Culture (Leiden 2018) 145–168

"[…] Every society […] produces a space, its own space. The city of the ancient world cannot be understood as a collection of people and things in space; nor can it be visualized solely on the basis of a number of texts and treatises on the subject of space […]. For the ancient city had its own spatial practice: it forged its own-appropriated-space" (Lefebvre 1984, 31) 1. In reference to this concept of a produced space, Henri Lefebvre distinguishes three interrelated categories of space: perceived space, conceived space and lived space 2. The following contribution describes the diverse forms of spatial appropriation between the 10 th and the 7 th centuries BC and relates them to visual conceptualizations of human surroundings. Lived space: The Dark Ages and the rise of the Greek polis The post-Mycenian period experienced the end of a centralized settlement system, whereby settlement density declined and large-scale or stone architecture was almost totally lacking. It was not until the 9 th or the 8 th century BC (depending on the region

Perspective and Spatiality in the Modern Age

2016

the domain of Art critique and becoming a philosophical argument. How can we think of Perspective as symbolic Form? Is Perspective really a symbolic form? Why is Perspective so important? Because at the beginning of the Modern Age, Perspective as spiritual figure grounds many symbolic or even many scientific constructions. We could we say that perspective open the foundation of modern science as such. The “Geometrization” of Vision, beginning with perspective, will be for us the interpretative key in order to understand the Modern Age as a whole. This understanding will allow us to understand the anthropologic dimension arising from the Modern Age, called „Perspectivism“. Assuming that perspective was neither only an invention of painting nor of geometry nor of philosophy, taken as singular fields of human inquiry, we will try to sketch the genesis of “perspective” from an interdisciplinary point of view. By doing so, we will also try to fix its deep significance for the anthropolo...

The Semantic Conditionality of the Regional Perception of Space: Perceptual-spatial Connection of Functionally Integrated Elements of Culture

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2015

Search for new mythological and philosophical establishments in modified geopolitical conditions make another treatment to the phenomenon of space, perception and his refer to human civilization. The magnitude and intenseness are taking place in our society of social and economic processes; they determine an essential increase of role of the human factor for successful conclusion of the initiated reforms. The humanity always aspires to fill the world around of objects. There are complicated and monumental things like a town, and there are relatively simple and not great, for example, picture. The whole world of objects stays in space, if it was created and functionally-integrated by person, or uncreated, natural. This article reviews a problem of the connection of objective elements of culture in the space of the world. Talking about any subject of art, we are thinking it in the field positioned in a certain space. Moreover, it touches not only visual subjects but also things are perceived by organs of smell, touch and taste. All things are thought wrapped up in space. Herewith, socio-psychological inquiries of communication, including investigation of cognitive processes of each other, assume particularly important significance. Since ancient times, people were interested in a question what is the phenomenon of space? If it has something absolutely empty or it is some ethereal body.

Human Spatiality: A Cultural Phenomenology of Landscapes and Places

The paper applies phenomenological method to the analysis of perception of landscapes and other spatial formations. A spatial formation is seen as a region of space, or a territory, with its specific meaning that is experienced by the subject who views it. Husserl's theory of meaning-formation is used to clarify how spatial formations obtain meanings that define them as landscape, home, or country. It is suggested that besides the subject's position and the series of perceptions of objects, the decisive element that determines the meaning of the specific spatial formation is what Husserl calls a " grasping sense " (Auffassungssinn). It defines the gaze specific to a particular spatiality. When the " grasping sense " becomes intersubjectively valid and institutionalized, it obtains the status of a cultural form which functions as a meaning-bestowing automaton for interpreting the world for entire societies. Finally it is argued that the spatiality specific to human Umwelten serves the purpose of creating and maintaining meanings that would otherwise disappear in the flux of time.

Perspective and Spatiality in the Modern Age. The Italian Painting and the Topos of Annunciation between Art, Theology and Science

Aisthesis, 2016

The domain of Art critique and becoming a philosophical argument. How can we think of Perspective as symbolic Form? Is Perspective really a symbolic form? Why is Perspective so important? Because at the beginning of the Modern Age, Perspective as spiritual figure grounds many symbolic or even many scientific constructions. We could we say that perspective open the foundation of modern science as such. The “Geometrization” of Vision, beginning with perspective, will be for us the interpretative key in order to understand the Modern Age as a whole. This understanding will allow us to understand the anthropologic dimension arising from the Modern Age, called „Perspectivism“. Assuming that perspective was neither only an invention of painting nor of geometry nor of philosophy, taken as singular fields of human inquiry, we will try to sketch the genesis of “perspective” from an interdisciplinary point of view. By doing so, we will also try to fix its deep significance for the anthropology of the Modern Age. Living and feeling in a perspectival world is the real invention of the Modern Age, one that overcame the closed Cosmos of the Middle Ages in order to reveal to mankind its own potential. Our interdisciplinary approach will proceed from many points of view (history of art, science, theology, anthropology) and converge on the idea of a new kind of human experience. Such an interdisciplinary approach will open new questions about our present time. Are we justified in thinking of our experience today as perspectival? What does it mean today to think from perspectives in the manifold dimensions of our living and to face to the complexity of our times?

"About inner worlds, landscapes, and the nature of the gaze"

FilArch 2022 – ON GARDENS, 2022

In the relationships between nature and landscape (in an architectonic sense), between nature and garden, it is possible to identify the same issue, an area of contrast allocated (not without tension) between two distinct movements: on the one hand, a certain autonomy of the becoming of nature; and, on the other hand, a supposed control and intentionality in human action over the nature –– especially, in the elaborations understood as landscape and garden. Based on this, we propose a question.

Space and Place (from Agnew and Livingstone (eds.) The Sage handbook of Geographical Knowledge, 2011)

The question of space and place in geographical knowledge is ultimately not just about whether the question of "where" matters in the way that "when" does in explaining "how" and even "why" something happens. It is also about how it matters. Given that both space and place are about the "where" of things and their relative invocation has usually signaled different understandings of what "where" means, it is best to examine them together rather than separately. That is the purpose of this chapter.

Space, Time and the Articulation of a Place in the World: the Philosophical Context

B. Richardson (ed.): Spatiality and Symbolic Expression. London: Palgrave, 2015

This chapter shows how philosophical approaches to space attempt to articulate a difference between homogenous scientific space and the spatiality of human existence. From Kant and Hegel through to Agamben and Balibar the question at issue is what it means to be spatially constituted as being which lives in space in an irreducible temporal manner. Space, so understood, is not something external to the self, but rather that in which human beings are immersed as corporeal beings. Places are shown to be historical spaces embodying memories and gesturing possible meaning. However, space as historical place can be exclusionary and increasingly human beings experience place as exiles. Taking a view over the post-Kantian philosophical tradition, it is shown that to be in place is to risk displacement, to dwell is to be amidst ruination, to move is to be moved, to be spatial is also to be subject to spatiality.