Atmospheric Spaces
Ambiances January 13, 2025 DOI: 10.4000/ambiances.711 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Atmosphere Emotions Felt body Area-less spaces |
| Key points | Argues that atmospheres are spaces without area that can be understood through a phenomenology of the felt body, and that people derive their own emotional space from atmospheres available at places. |
Abstract
The article develops a fundamental conception of atmospheres which is incorporated into a phenomenology of the felt body [Leib]. It builds on a critique of a splitting of the world into a private inner world as the location of experience and of emotions, and an external world that is separated off from that – a split already made in antiquity. Set against this notion is the conception of the felt body as space without area. What is meant by the felt body is what one can sense as belonging to oneself without recourse to the five senses. Atmospheres represent another category of spaces without area. They are regarded as a total or partial occupation of a space without area in that sphere that is experienced as being present. A distinction is made here between atmospheres of the felt body, atmospheres of emotion, and those atmospheres that are not emotions. The example of living [in the sense of dwelling] is used to clarify how people achieve their own space of emotion from the atmospheres of emotion available at places.