Nelson Goodman's philosophy: an analytical account of architecture

Abstract

Architects resort to philosophy to get inspiration for their projects and to interpret their work. While mainly philosophical currents belonging to the continental tradition have made important contributions to architectural theory, the Anglo-American or analytical tradition is generally not considered. This paper presents the thought of American philosopher Nelson Goodman (1906-1998) as a fruitful alternative to continental accounts of architecture. Goodman's approach to architecture provides new insights to understanding and interpreting the built environment, and his philosophy serves as an example of analytical thinking on architecture that complements the variety of reasoning already at hand for architects. Following Goodman, architecture plays a key role in the creation of meaning and reality. First, architecture creates meaning and contributes to the advancement of our understanding in a unique manner: buildings are symbols, they mean in various ways, and these meanings are irreducible to other kinds of knowledge. Second, architecture contributes to the making of the world in a radical sense: not only in that buildings are physical objects and, as such, constitutive elements of our world, but in that their various meanings have an ontological counterpart. That is to say, it is not the case that there is one world and many interpretations of it, but rather that these various interpretations and meanings actually constitute different worlds. Given this interrelation with meaning and reality and architecture's central role in both, the task of the architect acquires a wider significance, for designing entails the very creation of meaning as well as of our world. This paper aims to show how both Goodman's thought and the concepts and methods characteristic of analytical philosophy are helpful conceptual tools to examine buildings. Simultaneously, it shows how analytical philosophy can enhance the architect's critical skills when designing and thinking about architecture.