What sort of evidence would one need in order to begin answering this question? One can look to the origin of a place to see who built it and possibly to see what their intentions were (intentional fallacy intended). One may look at the materials used in composing a particular place, or one may look at the language used to describe that place (this may be termed "the grammar of a place"). This leads one to see that the first question pondered here may be rephrased in three primary ways. Namely,
What is the intention of this place existing at all?
What are the media used in the composition of this place?, and
What is the grammar of this place?
When investigating the philosophy of a place one should turn, perhaps return, to these questions.
The city as first psychological unity.
The city as phallic. The city as womb. The city as melting pot. The city as first political entity. The city as first creation and first creator of those who create it. Man's labor is first imagined. Is the city first imagined? Perhaps it is first imagined as that which imagines its imaginer imagining it. It is the positive feedback of imagination coming into completed action. The city as a stream of faces. The city as a river of money. The city as a song. The city as a simile for "he city as." The city as a simile of a simile of it. Again the city as a loop enjoying itself. Fractal recursions, the city as the city in, the city within in as.…
The city and its vectors
Tell me, if the city is a game, who are the players? Tell me, if the city is a poem, what is its voice? Tell me, if the city is a story, where is its climax and denouement? Tell me, if the city is a poem, does it need a voice? Tell me, if the city is a language, what is its language? Tell me, if the city is a language, who is its linguist? Tell me, again, tell the city again, tell the city again as it tells you.
The city in the mirror
Faces of the city--sweet oriental ones, reserved WASP ones, angry black, tired worker, rushed business man, strung out, hopeful child, and at times, slightly, I wonder what my face looks like in the gaze of the city.
Strength in diversity
The society which is best is the one which allows for the most possibilities while maintaining the virtue of health. As John Stuart Mill wrote, the question is "how to make the fitting adjustment between individual independence and social control?" The city is a place of conflicting claims, conflicting answers to the above question. In political and economic life conflicting claims of liberty are dealt with by the political structure. This is the normal story; what is left out of this picture which includes both political and economic freedom is life--freedom, that is, not the freedom to choose the course of political life or economic life, but the freedom to choose the course of your own life. This is a fully modern freedom, for prior to modern times "freedom" included mainly economic and political freedoms and the answer to the above question was comprised of those freedoms. In the modern age, freedom has split into political and economic freedom which do not fully encompass lifestyle freedoms. Just as economic and political freedoms need models to look to in order to answer them (i.e. communism, democracy, socialism), so does lifestyle freedom, but as there are more possibilities available in life in toto than there are ways of governing and ways of producing and distributing goods, many models of life are needed. The city is the best place to view the multitude of possible lives available.
