Gaston Bachelard might not appear on the short list of well known 20th
century thinkers, but he is however a very interesting and inspiring writer
with influence on contemporary thought which is not always recognized. With an
interesting combination of epistemology, phenomenology and poetics Bachelard
made some very interesting, beautiful and influential remarks about science,
space, human psychology and the nature of our encounter with the world.
Bachelard's most famous book today is "The Poetics of Space" but many
of his other writings remain relevant.
Bachelard was a predominantly preoccupied with epistemology and phenomenology
which he laced with understanding related to psychoanalysis. This interesting mixture
of theoretical orientations stood at the base of Bachelard's investigations
into the human condition.
One example of Bachelard's thoughts in this regard, and an example of
his subsequent influence, is his accounts on the psychology of science. He was
the first one to suggest the scientific progress has to do with certain modes
of thought and perceptions, and not just the accumulation of knowledge.
Bachelard's concept of epidemiological break as a point of change in such
perceptions will later echo in the highly known works of Louis Althusser and Thomas Kuhn.
Another notable area in which Gaston Bachelard has something important
to offer is that of poetics (not always distinct from his writing about
science). Bachelards' most famous work in this regard is "The Poetics of
Space". In "The Poetics of Space" Bachelard holds a phenomenological
study of private architecture and its relations to the "architecture of the
psyche". Bachelard attempts to describe the private residence though the
poetic conceptions of its different parts (what he calls "topoanalysis"). In other
words, in "The Poetics of Space" Bachelard explores the inside of the
house as the inside of the human soul. He views the house as "primal
universe" of psychological existence and ascribes different meaning to
various images relating to home and space in general.