Spaces of enlightenment : From domestic scenes to global visions

[Extract] In this collection, we are concerned with space in three discrete but overlapping senses: (1) as a locality or named place where events happen, such as a specific city, region, nation, territory, ocean, and so on; (2) as the setting for a designated social practice — for example, the theater, the print room, the battlefield, or the picturesque tourist destination; and (3) as an abstract (and often metaphysical) category, which may be either infinite and universal, or finite and bounded, as theorized by Immanuel Kant, who thought of space as one of the preconditions of understanding and of practical reason per se.