Architects on Value: Reducing Ethics to Aesthetics?

Abstract

Historically, philosophical inquiries into ethics have repeatedly aligned with inquiries into architecture and, especially, the human city. Be it Plato’s writings on the polis or Augustine’s reflections on the two cities in his Civitate Dei, philosophical attention to matters at the heart of architectural practice seem not lacking (Illies and Ray 2009, p. 1199n.1). It may be surprising, then, that contemporary philosophy lacks its own sustained attempt at an ethics of architecture. With few notable exceptions (such as Scruton 1995), architecture does not receive the contemporary philosophical attention it deserves. We may inquire why this is so, but also how to remedy this. One way of remedy would be to work one’s way towards an ethics of architecture by starting from a layman’s perspective on architecture. Another mode of remedy would seek to scrutinize extant ethical debates within architectural theory and see what can be done to improve these debates from a philosophical point of view.