Meaning-forming functions of the spatial coordinate of culture in Foucault's philosophical concept

The article is devoted to the study of understanding the meaning-forming functions of culture, determined by its spatial characteristics in the philosophical work of Michel Foucault. He puts forward the thesis about the decisive role of space in social practice, the growth of complication of its organization from planar to three-dimensional, and opens up virtual spaces of cultural thinking. Space is understood not only geographically, but as the initial impulse and attribute of culture. The comparison method makes it possible to study the evolution of the thinker’s views from focusing on social aspects, through awareness of the problems of individual consciousness to understanding the deep dynamics of culture as a semiotic, ethical and aesthetic phenomenon. Striving for generalization, the author relies on such notions of M. Foucault as episteme, “spaces of disagreement”, and “heterotopic” spaces. The concept of “individuation of spatial vision” is introduced, and the principle of “multiplicity of spatial levels” is included in the scientific circulation. As a result of the analysis, a conclusion is made about the discovery of the cultural relativity of spatial meanings in the context of the historical comprehension of the topos, the dynamics of its points and the branching of spatial levels. This article is an attempt to reveal the mechanism of spatial displacements outlined by Foucault, which will become the basis for understanding the new possibilities of creativity in art and culture.