Man and the City - philosophical and cultural-anthropological aspects of the problem

This dissertation thesis focuses on the philosophical aspects of the relationship of Man toward the city. The main methods of the work are interpretation of texts connected with the city and a philosophically inspired analysis of the bond of Man with the city as a space and time constructed, inhabited and shared by humans, and with its experienced phenomena. First of all it presents the method by which the theme of the city has been dealt with by scholars from the field of philosophy and other social sciences. We find the theme of the city in the works of a whole range of philosophers: For example, it served J. A. Comenius as a symbol of human situation in life, Michel Foucault as a point of departure for his political-philosophical analysis of power, and Emmanuel Lévinas for his discourse on culpability, punishment and responsibility. In order to understand the phenomenon of the city, observations from sociologists, architects, town planners and historians of architecture are also important. Moreover, in their works it is possible to find overlaps into philosophical thought, for example Bernard Lepetit contributes to the theme of the temporality of the city with the concept of the "trace", whilst Jan Gehl, through his discourse on the perception of environment and the challenge of applying a human..