“Topophilia” and “Topophobia”: Towards Phenomenology of Spacial Experience

Abstract

The research is dedicated to the critical comparison of two phenomenological strategies that elaborate the issue of space (G. Bachelard’s and D. Trigg’s), and link the placement in space with the emotional and bodily experience and the ca­pacity of human to extend beyond. Phenomenological descriptions of the spacial experience indicate the deeply emotional colouring of human attitude towards place, that implies searching for one’s “own place in the world”, or a home. The article develops the idea that the relationship between the human and the space (or the way the body perceives the space) can be conceptualized through the concepts of topophilia and topophobia. This explanation has existential ground, and it has to deal with poetic imagination, hope and anxiety. The con­cepts of the friendly/unfriendly landscape or environment cannot be reduced to the personal or subjective judgement on its ergonomics, but it also cannot be limited to the constructive characteristics and pecularities of some place per­ceived as a “workspace”, “leisure area” etc. The friendliness of the space as such can be comprehended through the phenomenological description of bodily expe­rience and the corresponding research of topophilia and topophobia, which should be treated not as psychological diagnosis or concrete attitudes of con­sciousness, but as phenomena, which are revealing itself in the world. Phe­nomenology of bodily presence in space can be seen as a prolific method, that could provide the descriptions of experience, which are necessary for implemen­tation of “the right of the city” (H. Lefebvre).