home page
 human resources
regulation
program of studies
contact
candidatures 2010-11

Seminar III: "On place"

Attempt at a conceptual approach

Instructor: Xeropaidis Giorgos

This seminar uses two basic ideas as starting points. Firstly, the idea that place is an essential but neglected concept of philosophy, and secondly, the idea that place has an important role in the writings of one of the most renowned, albeit controversial thinkers of the previous century, Martin Heidegger (1889-1976). As Edward Casey, the American historian of philosophy, has pointed out in his very informative studies Getting Back into Place (1993) and The Fate of Place (1997), in western philosophical tradition  place is considered a secondary phenomenon in comparison to space, which since the era of Descartes has been regarded as an infinite, homogeneous and objectively countable expanse. In this way, place tends to become the same as a simple position in space. Both the way place connects to space, time, habitation, construction and the feeling of motherland, concepts in other words on which the conceptual clarification of the nature and mission of architecture is based, as well as the way in which these concepts are organized in a single and cohesive entity have not been systematically examined by philosophy. Although Casey is of the opinion that land has reappeared in the writings of a number of thinkers, one of whom is undoubtedly Heidegger, the way in which Heidegger presents land in his latest work, seems to be special. In contrast to Casey, who claims that Heidegger gets to the concept of land through a by-pass, it is worth mentioning that Heidegger’s clearly stated intention is to develop an ontology directed towards the concept of land as such. In his mind, the question about being, which is the fundamental issue of Western philosophy, is transformed into a question about land, ontology into topology: being and land are connected to each other in a way that doesn’t allow us to understand one as a product of the other but on the contrary, compels us to consider being as something that can be revealed only in and through land.
            Using Sein und Zeit [Being and Time] (1927) together with the more recent Das Ding [The Thing] (1950), BauenWohnenDenken [Building, Dwelling, Thinking] (1951), „...dichterischwohnetderMensch...“ […poetically man dwells…] (1951), DieFragenachderTechnik [The Question concerning Technique] (1953) and  DieKunstundderRaum [Art and Space] (1969) we will try to show: first, that Heidegger’s thoughts are a constant attempt at highlighting land as the medium in which every human experience either theoretical or practical , conative or rational must happen; secondly, that a sufficient understanding of land presupposes a critical dialogue with the way Descartes and Kant see land; thirdly, that an unclear understanding of land carries  the risk of a mistaken political stance just like the one adopted by the German thinker himself during the crucial period of 1933-1936; and fourthly, that a thought which demonstrates the vital role of land in composing human experience, contributes directly or indirectly to the discovery of the special importance of imagination (Gaston Bachelard), corporeity (Maurice Merleau-Ponty), the radical alterity of the Other (Emmanuel Levinas), and the materiality of a point (Jacques Derrida).

Selection of bibliography

  1. Bachelard, Gaston, The Poetics of Space, Boston: Beacon Press, 1958.
  2. Buttimer, Anne and David Seamon (eds.), The Human Experience of Space and Place, London: Croom Helm, 1980.
  3. Casey, Edward S., The Fate of Place, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.
  4. Casey, Edward S., Getting Back into Place, Bloomington: Indiana University, 1993.
  5. de Beistegui, Miguel, Heidegger and the Political: Dystopias, London: Routledge, 1998.
  6. de Beistegui, Miguel, Thinking with Heidegger. Displacements, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.
  7. Derrida, Jacques, Margins of Philosophy, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1982.
  8. Derrida, Jacques, Writing and Difference, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1978.
  9. Dreyfus, Hubert L., Being-in-the World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s “Being and Time”, Division I, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1991.
  10. Elden, Stuart, “Hölderlin and the Importance of Place”, Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 30 (1999), 258-274.
  11. Elden, Stuart, Mapping the Present: Heidegger, Foucault, and the Project of a Spatial History, London: Continuum, 2001.
  12. Feenberg, Andrew, Heidegger and Marcuse. The Catastrophe and Redemption of History, New York and London: Routledge, 2005.
  13. Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Truth and Method, New York: Crossroad, 1992.
  14. Harries, Karsten, The Ethical Function of Architecture, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998.
  15. Heidegger, Martin, Voträge und Aufsätze, Frankfurt: Klostermann, 2000
  16. Heidegger, Martin, Being and Time: A Translation of “Sein und Zeit”, Albany: Sunny Press, 1996.
  17. Kant, Immanuel, Political Writings, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  18. Leach, Neil (ed.), Architecture and Revolution. Contemporary perspectives on Central and Eastern Europe, London: Routledge, 1999.
  19. Lyotard, J.-F., The Inhuman, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.
  20. Malpas, Jeff, Heidegger’s Topology: Being, Place, World, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2006.
  21. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, Phenomenology of Perception, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1962.
  22. Neske, G. and E. Kettering (eds.), Martin Heidegger and National Socialism, New York: Paragon House, 1990.
  23. Norbert-Schulz, Christian, The Concept of Dwelling: On the Way to Figurative Architecture, New York: Rizolli, 1984.
  24. Ott, Hugo, Martin Heidegger: A Political Life, London: Harper Collins, 1993.
  25. Pignatelli, Paola Coppola, “The Dialectics of Urban Architecture: Hestia and Hermes,” Spring (1985).
  26. Sluga, Hans, Heidegger’s Crisis: Philosophy and Politics in Nazi Germany, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Internet

http://www.tu-cotbus.de
(In this site you can find, amongst others, the most important of Heidegger’s texts about technology and architecture translated in English).

Topics

  1. Analyse what Heidegger means in his basic work Being and Time when he uses the term “Dasein”.
  2. Explain the ontological distinction introduced by Descartes between res cogitans και res corporea. What is the perception of space and the world that arises from this distinction? Use the criticism that Heidegger made on Descartes’ ontology in §§ 19-24 and § 70 of  Being and Time as your basis.
  3. How does Heidegger explain the relationship between space and time in Being and Time?  How does he deal with this relationship in his latest work?
  4. Which is the ontological place of architecture according to Heidegger in his following writings: a) The origin of a work of art, b) Building, Dwelling, Thinkingand c) Art and Space?
  5. How does Kant understand space in his work: The Critique of Pure Reason?
  6. How does Kant explain the aesthetic dimension of architecture in The Critique of Pure Reason?
  7. Which are the fundamental premises of the aesthetic theory which Hegel develops in the “Introduction” to Lectures on Aesthetics?
  8. How is place perceived in Aristotle’s Physics? How do land and movement connect to each other? Use Heidegger’s An Introduction to Metaphysicsas your starting point.
  9. The predominance of space over place in modern philosophical thinking: Newton, Leibniz, Locke.
  10. Corporeity and space: Husserl, Heidegger and M. Merlau-Ponty.
  11. Art and space: From Heidegger to M. Merlau-Ponty.
  12. The concept of place for post modern thinkers: Bachelard, Foucault, Derrida, Levinas.
  13. The concept of dwelling for Heidegger and Chr. Norbert-Schulz.