Space

espace

Worked through in 7 videos · 10 passages.

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Summary

Dominique Pagani defines space as the world of simultaneity, where all the parts are co-present, partes extra partes1. He thus implicitly contrasts it with time and draws from this a distinction between the arts: painting, sculpture and architecture are arts of space, in which the left, the middle and the right of a painting are given at the same time2. In his view, philosophy gives priority to the relation to extension up until Kant, whose great reversal makes space the a priori form of external intuitions, without which nothing could be seen3. He refuses to regard it as an objective receptacle: space depends on the conceptions and the imaginary of an era, as shown by the abstract border that appeared at the end of the seventeenth century, or by the infinite and homogeneous universe that the scientific revolution substitutes for the hierarchical cosmos4 5. In Nerval, he reads Rousseau's tomb as a centre of gravity that distorts space, in the manner of relativity6. He also associates space with the stage and with illusion, and holds that geopolitics remains on the surface7.

Summary produced automatically from 10 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.

Series · 15 Jun 2022Tchaikovsky: from the steppes to the Midwest

9:03Russia and the United States have in common great spaces, steppe or Midwest, as opposed to the rolling landscapes of old Europe.

Series · 23 May 2022Introduction to the podcast

1:07Painting, sculpture, and architecture are arts of space, where all parts, such as the left, middle, and right of a painting, are simultaneous.

Cycle 9.2 · 7 Jan 2021#9.11 How can sciences of history be real?

1:17:57Space is not an objective receptacle: it is dependent on the conceptions and the imaginary of an era, like the abstract boundary that appeared at the end of the seventeenth century.
1:22:02The scientific revolution substitutes an infinite, homogeneous universe for the finite, hierarchically ordered cosmos of ancient and medieval thought.

Cycle 5.2 · 4 Feb 2019#5.4 Nature or landscape?

2:54The realm of simultaneity, partes extra partes; until Kant philosophy privileges the relation to extension.

Cycle 4 · 12 Apr 2018#4.7 Angélique (by Nerval)

7:27Rousseau's tomb is a center of gravity that deforms space depending on whether one approaches or moves away from it, as in relativity.
50:48As in relativistic physics, the intelligibility of the trajectory is sought in the nature of the space traversed.

Cycle 4 · 15 Jan 2018#4.4 Angélique (by Nerval)

28:45We could see nothing if space were not given beforehand: a priori form of external intuitions, Kant's great reversal.

Talks · 26 Apr 2015The music of history

16:28Space is the world of simultaneity, where all parts are co-present.
1:09:00Space is the place of the stage and of illusion; geopolitics remains on the surface.