Eyes That Do Not See

In Toward a New Architecture, what does Le Corbusier mean by “sight?” He means both physical eyesight and metaphorical insight, and he moves back and forth between those meanings smoothly but not always clearly or consistently. First, I have a few general notes. Corbusier praises engineering for its adherence to math/efficiency, which “puts us inContinue reading “Eyes That Do Not See”

Concepts: why do we even have them?

In the year since I last wrote here (I know—I have been very bad) I have continued to think about why we even teach concepts in the first place. I have also authored a new course on architectural history and philosophy (hopelessly ambitious in its cross-cultural and temporal reach) which was the equivalent of writingContinue reading “Concepts: why do we even have them?”

You Get One Question

In response to my common in-class refrain about the goals of ancient philosophy, which tried often to define “the good life” and tell us how to get there, one of my students recently asked me what the core question of modern philosophy is. My first hunch was that it’s something like “How can we sayContinue reading “You Get One Question”

3 Darlings I’d Like to Kill

Last week was a disaster on the political front, so I am going to tackle some itty bitty evils just to get in practice for the larger ones we will be struggling with for years. Specifically, there are 3 things I am really tired of seeing in student projects, and I can basically guarantee thatContinue reading “3 Darlings I’d Like to Kill”