Skip to content

Philosophy and Cultural Space

Explore the intense discussion in contemporary philosophy about the symbolic, meaningful nature of space and spatial relations and offer an education in cultural space philosophical knowledge

← Back to courses
CIVIS focus area
Society, culture, heritage
Open to
  • Master's
  • PhD
Field of studies
  • Art, Design and Media
  • Social Science and humanities
  • Environmental sciences, Urbanism, Geography
Type
  • Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP)
Course dates
5 February - 17 May 2024

Beyond archaeology, the modern cultural strata offer a clear epistemological exemplification for the study of the philosophy of cultural space. The students will have the opportunity in the courses and in visiting Athens to acknowledge the plural significations of spaces. Thus, the imaginative constitution and institution of spaces will be analysed together with the ideas of power, glory, decline, revival, reinforcement that will be central to the argument of the course. The students will have subsequently the opportunity to further analyse and examine the notion of cultural space in their own studies since they are at the stage of forming an academic profile and a research programme.

Main topics addressed

  • Cultural topography
  • Modernity
  • Contemporaneity
  • Spatial discourses
  • Cognitive formations
  • Architectonics of reason
  • Epistemology of everyday life
  • Mythology of space

Learning outcomes

  • Identify the basic principles of cultural space on the basis and the methodology of its philosophical study
  • Define the structures of cultural space in a way that, through the theoretical approach, will be able to spot the real and imaginary aspects that underscore the cognitive changes in the relevant area of study
  • Determine the epistemological traditions that are archetypal for the relevant study in order to proceed to comparisons and further clarifications both on methodology and content
  • Associate the sciences and theories surrounding cultural space in order to bring the study within a broader epistemological field
  • Identify, measure, and relativize the number of epistemologies that constitute a cultural space
  • Associate philosophical anthropologies to ethics in an enlarged cultural perspective
  • Compare the methodological issues in the use of new technologies in the field of Cultural Space Studies and evaluate the element of technological change in the archetypal cultural areas
  • Present the critique of media and institutions on the level of the philosophy of cultural space
Dates: 5 February - 17 May 2024 Language: English (B2)
Location: Athens,  Greece ECTS: 6*
Format: Blended Workload: 160 hours
Contact: Georgios Arabatzis  

*Recognition of ECTS depends on your home university. 

Physical mobility

13 May to 17 May 2024

The physical part includes:

  • Everyday lectures
  • Visits to culturally important locations
  • Encounters with stakeholders

Virtual part

5 February to 4 April 2024

  • 5 February 2024: Introduction to the course
  • 15 February 2024: Cultural space and epistemology of everyday life
  • 22 February 2024: Cultural space and styles of life
  • 29 February 2024: Architectonics of reason
  • 7 March 2024: Space and simulacra
  • 14 March 2024: Borders and cognitive formations
  • 21 March 2024: Heterotopias
  • 28 March 2024: Presentation of research projects
  • 4 April 2024: General discussion, end of the virtual part

Requirements

This course is open to Master's and PhD students at CIVIS member universities enrolled in the following fields of study:

  • Philosophy
  • Humanities
  • Interdisciplinarity
  • Social sciences

A B2 level in English is required.

NB: Visiting Students - Erasmus Funding Eligibility

To be eligible for your selected CIVIS programme, you must be a fully enrolled student at your CIVIS home university at the time you will be undertaking the programme. Click here to learn more about the eligibility criteria.

 

Students from CIVIS’ strategic partner universities in Africa cannot apply for participation in this course.

Application process

Interested students should apply by filling in the online application form by 7 November 2023. 

Students will be selected based on the following criteria: CV and motivation letter.

Apply here

Assessment

  • Examination with multiple choice questions
  • Presentation of a research project

Blended Intensive Programme

This CIVIS course is a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP): a new format of Erasmus+ mobility which combines online teaching with a short trip to another campus to learn alongside students and professors across Europe. Click here to learn more about CIVIS BIPs.

GDPR Consent

The CIVIS alliance and its member universities will treat the information you provide with respect. Please refer to our privacy policy for more information on our privacy practices. By applying to this course you agree that we may process your information in accordance with these terms.

  • Georgios Arabatzis, Professor of Byzantine Philosophy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Ph. D., EHESS, Paris). His fields of interest include Greek Philosophy and Aesthetics, especially from a critical epistemological point of view. He has organised expositions and events in the frame of reconsidering the organisation of space and the fragmentation of the epistemologies of everyday life.
  • Marc Peeters, professor of philosophy at the Université libre de Bruxelles. His research is focused on a metaphorical locus of reason in conflict with itself, which we may call the discrepancy of reason and which belongs in its own right to the architectonics of pure reason as the art of systems. Amongst his books: "L'Architectonique : Kant et le problème logique de l’ontologie dans la Critique de la Raison Pure", Nagoya, Japan, 2016.
  • Viorel Vizureanu, Professor of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, his research is focusing on the categories of space and time. Among his publications: Bordering Europe: Our Marginals, Old and New; Presenting Foucault’s “theoretical” position concerning space: General remarks and some different perspectives; Some remarks concerning the concept of glocalization, and others.