The Big City

Abstract

Joachim Ritter’s classic work “The Big City” is devoted to a critical analysis of the philosophical and theoretical position based on the negation of urban civilization. The work was written in the context of the increasing popularity of Martin Heidegger’s ideas, permeated by the cultural criticism of urban civilization. Rejection or “denunciation” of the city and its civilizational achievements is a distinctive feature of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler and many other popular authors as well. This theoretical trend, which developed and strengthened during the formation of modern society, Ritter opposes another philosophical line associated with Socrates and his “appeal to the city.” It was systematically developed by Aristotle, who defined man as a “political (polis) animal”. It is only in the context of polis civilisation that man is able to become what he can be — a rational and free being. This Greek model of the polis, “limited by the inhumanity of slavery,” is becoming universal within modern society, a society that emerged in Europe but has long since transcended its limits. According to Ritter, the emergence of civilisation and modern urbanised society is the result of a fundamental discontinuity in relation to the past and the history of its origin (Herkunft).