§ 10 The organisation of space and its uses

This way of looking is perhaps best represented by the contrast of two systematic ways of representing space so as to use it as a concept of the understanding.¹

For analytical purposes, there is Cartesian or absolute space, with its X, Y and Z axes, in which everything can be placed relative to each other without further privilege or interest, except that of the understanding, thus helping to make adequate and properly objectified models of the world in terms of relative movement.

Absolute space has no perspectival or conic organisation and privileges only understanding over everything else by framing a moment or event in absolute space which captures our interest. It establishes relative positions in terms of three coordinates, using a fourth, which is usually that of time.

It is an objectified and objectifying space, a purely analytical space for understanding how things work.

Brunelleschian or perspectival space on the other hand, gives us a systematic reconstruction of a point of view, using the horizon (always relative to the height of the viewpoint) and its various vanishing points to organize things specifically in relation to a privileged viewing person with the eye as the organizational focus of where things are placed with reference to that eye and its point of view.

In this way, everything comes together, creating relations such as ‘near’ and ‘far away’, ‘high’ and ‘low’ and so forth. Things thus acquire a value of relative urgency and placement relative to that point of view.

The Brunelleschian perspective is a subjectifying move in the organisation of space.

These can be further elaborated. There are different organizations of space possible, such as spaces ordering a narrative (like a comic book of Moghul miniatures) spaces in which importance is equated with size and separation (Such as in Duccio’s Maestá of 1308-1311), axially organised spaces giving privelege to direction (Such as Paris and Rome), clearly bordered spaces separating the everyday from the special, the good from the bad, the outside from the inside, the profane from the sacred.

All the ways space can be organised say something about how we think about and conceive the world.

© jacob voorthuis, 2026. Please cite Jacob Voorthuis as the author, The Theoria Project as the title and the page address as the location. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially under the following terms: No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.

1. A slightly older version of this paragraph was first published in Jacob Voorthuis, Theoria, use, intention & design, a philosophical reckoning; Analysis & Critique: Gardening in the metaphysics of the beautiful, the true, and the good, AHT, Tu/e (2024) ↩︎