Philosophy of the city, or, similarly, the „philosophy of urbanism" – a movement in modern Russian thought, dealing with the problems of urbanism and the influence of the city as a socio-cultural phenomenon on thinking. Has a direct connection with the Philosophy of Architecture. Presented by such contemporary authors as V. Vanchugov, S. B. Veselova, S. A. Smirnov, L. E. Trushina. Philosophy of a city is a complex project in its structure, engaged in both the study of the essence of a certain phenomenon (city) and the influence of this phenomenon on philosophy and thinking in general. Thus, the texts included in this project can simultaneously relate to both philosophy and the history of philosophy.

Prehistory of the city’s philosophy

The philosophy of the city is a fairly new phenomenon in Russian philosophy, but philosophy has been dealing with the problems of the city for a long time. Thus, a situation arises when the term is much younger than the phenomenon, and has a rich prehistory. Material of this kind can be studied, avoiding the retrospective introduction of a modern concept into the past, with the help of a genealogy project created by F. Nietzsche and developed by M. Foucault. Already Plato was engaged in the philosophy of the city, studying the problem of an ideal state or polis. For the ancient Greek, a policy is both a city and a state. The further tradition of utopianism returned to this identity more than once, for example, in Campanella’s „City of the Sun" project. Also, among the ideas used by the philosophy of the city as a base, there are concepts of Platonic theology, such as the City of God and the City of the Worldly Augustine and, especially, the modern existential development of this topic by H. Cox in the book "City of the World". For example, S. A. Smirnov refers to Augustine. The use of the city as a metaphor, in particular in Descartes’s Discourse on the Method, is analyzed by S. B. Veselova as an instrumental technique for constructing classical rationality following the example of a city.

The main concepts and branches of the Philosophy of the city

Philosophical analysis of St. Petersburg

Among the studies related to the philosophy of the city, the aesthetic and existential analysis of St. Petersburg is especially popular. So, we can give an example of such authors as D.L. Spivak and his Metaphysics of St. Petersburg or the thanatological interpretation of St. Petersburg by M. S. Uvarov

The meaning of urban metaphor in the history of philosophy

Veselova examines the role that architectural and urban metaphors played in the formation of modern thought, thanks to which philosophers, according to the researcher, had a model of geometric order, which they strove for in thinking.