Logic of place and the form of cities
by
Augustin BERQUE
Abstract
The logic of place (basho no ronri) was a fundamental theme in the philosophy
of Nishida Kitaro (1870-1945). It showed that worldhood (sekaisei) functions as a
predicate (jutsugo). This can be understood more simply as follows: worldhood is
instituted by the way in which we grasp (feel, understand, say, handle) the things
which make our world. This conception was opposed to the modern Western way of
conceiving of reality, which relies on a logic of the subject (shugo), or in other words
on the principle of identity (A is A, A is not non-A).
Nishida's thought was deemed an "overcoming of modernity" (kindai no
choukoku), but in fact it was only an overturning of the principle of identity, replacing
it by a principle of identification or of metaphor (A becomes non-A). Nishida's error
was to absolutize worldhood, as an absolute "basho" (place) based on a logic of the
predicate ; whereas reality in fact combines the two logics.
What remains of Nishida's attempt was that he has clearly shown the nature of
worldhood. His philosophy puts into light the fundamental logic which is at work in
what has been called later, in Western thought, "the social construction of reality", a
conception which gave rise to constructivism then to deconstructivism as in Derrida's
philosophy. This trend of thought amounts to what I call "metabasism", inasmuch as,
like Nishida's logic of place, it tends to absolutize human worldhood, thus
disconnecting it from any base in the objective nature of things as it can be shown by
modern science. Modern science indeed functions upon the reverse principle, that of
identity (an object is what it is, independently from human existence).
The lecture intends to show the limits of both conceptions, focussing on
architecture and on the present evolution of the form of cities. Modernity has reached
its limit inasmuch as it produces a world of objects abstracted from human existence;
but human existence in its turn has a base in the objective nature of things. This is to
say that reality combines the principle of identity with a logic of place. Only on such
grounds shall we be able to conceive more proper guidelines for architecture and city
planning than those which were set by the modern movement then overturned by
postmodernism.