Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/35488
- Title
- The epistemological limits of Neo-Rationalism
- Author/Creator
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Fleming, Steven
- Institution
- The University of Newcastle. Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, School of Architecture and Built Environment
- Description
- By naming their architectural movement after a brand of philosophy that values reason over observation, and by professing an interest in the transcendence of geometry, the Neo-Rationalists wished to imbue their proposals with a sense of authority that would transcend issues of culture, geography and history. However; in epistemological terms, their theories were anything but Rational. Their theories, which advocated the study of extant European cities, stemmed instead from empirical observation. Employing the taxonomy that Panofsky used in his 1968 book ldea, the present paper identifies an Aristotelian basis to the theories of Aldo Rossi and brothers Leon and Rob Krier. These theorists'epistemology is echoed in texts by their major apologists, Giulio Carlo Argan, Alan Colquhoun and Anthony Vidler, whose discussions of typology are predicated on the notion that type is deduced from the study of empirical stereotypes, not atemporal archetypes. The major criticism of Neo-Rationalist theory - that it is ultimately nostalgic - can be attributed to the movement's epistemological limits. This is not to say that Neo-Rationalist theory could not have had a truly Rationalistic, or universal basis. Contributions to the topic by Geoffrey Broadbent, Paul-Alan Johnson and Leando Madrazo Agudin, all point to Plato, whose ancient philosophy recommends a process referred to as "dialectic" as a way of deducing universal ideas. The paper argues that such a method has been employed by Louis Kahn, whose interest in typology did not lead inevitably to a nostalgic architecture. By discussing Neo-Rationalist discourse of the 1970s in terms of Platonism and Aristotelianism, the paper highlights the epistemological limits of Neo-Rationalism, and suggests a possible strategy for the expansion of those limits.
- Relation
- SAHANZ Melbourne 2004: 21st Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand. Limits: Proceedings from the 21st Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand; Melbourne 2004, Vol. 1 (Melbourne 27-29 September, 2004) p. 155-159
- Relation
- http://sahanz04.tce.rmit.edu.au
- Date
- 2004
- Publisher
- Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand
- Keyword(s)
-
Neo-Rationalism;
epistemology;
architecture;
Louis Kahn;
typology;
Platonism;
Aristotelianism
- Resource Type
- conference paper
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/35488
- Identifier
- ISBN:0646440624
- Reviewed
- Full Text
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