Attunement to Place: The Mode of Place-Oriented Thinking

general courses

Fluency in English (B2)

The notion of place is fundamental to Heidegger’s philosophy and facilitates a critical inquiry into our Being in the world by thinking together Being, place, and time. As attuned to place, we can live our hermeneutic existence in radical responsivity to Being.

Recent philosophical research (Jeff Malpas, Günter Figal) emphasizes the centrality of place in Martin Heidegger’s thinking. Understanding ourselves as being situated in the world in our thrownneess (Geworfenheit), we discover our relationship to Being. Being thrown into a special concrete environment, we search for an authentic mode of Being in the world. Our explicit engagement with place and spatiality is one of the decisive aspects of the hermeneutics of facticity (Hermeneutik der Faktizität). Being, place, and time are inextricably bound together.

Instead of understanding buildings as architectural products, we would like to encourage thinking about buildings as places for coming together of people wising to experience their belonging together (Mitsein) in their liberating/captivating relationship to Being. Thus, a building has the potential of being a meeting place (occurrere- to meet) and can decisively contribute to the culture of dialogue.

David Leatherbarrow, Topographical Stories: Studies in Landscape and Architecture (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004).

David Leatherbarrow, Architecture Oriented Otherwise (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2009).

Jeff Malpas, Place and Experience (London: Routledge, 2018).

Jeff Malpas, Heidegger and the Thinking of Place (Boston: MIT, 2012),

Jeff Malpas, Rethinking Dwelling (London: Bloomsbury 2021)

Jeff Malpas, Brightness of Place (Albany, N.Y.: SUNY, 2022).

Christian Norberg-Schulz, Architecture: Presence, Language, and Place (Milan: Skira Editore; London: Thames & Hudson, 2000).

Learning outcomes

Knowledge:

o student is familiar with new literature on the literature as indicated in the bibliography

o is familiar with philosophical hermeneutics and hermeneutic philosophy

o knows the state of research in the hermeneutics of education and is able to design an innovative research project

Skills:

o can identify philosophical aspects of education

o can address the importance of feelings (curiosity, patience, courage, uncertainty, self-esteem) and validates them in the process of learning

o has skills in presenting aspects of philosophical hermeneutics in discussing issues in contemporary education in an international setting

o can effectively communicate with other scholars in hermeneutic philosophy and liberal arts

o as a creative and insightful student shows depth in thinking of and elaborating on original and novel ideas

Social competences:

o appreciates the need to learn to understand one’s life

o can set measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals and ways to achieve them in the context of academic, professional, and social activity

o sees the need for a dialogue between different academic disciplines and schools of thought

Students must attend classes, actively participate in discussions, and write a research paper of ca. 2500 words. The grade will be based on the paper 50%. Students should clear their topic with the instructor before writing. Final revised paper due Friday, June 9, 2023. Attendance/Active in-class participation (50%). Along with the final paper, students are required to submit a detailed report about their attendance and self-evaluation of their activity in the class.