Book contents
- A Philosopher Looks at Architecture
- A Philosopher Looks at
- A Philosopher Looks at Architecture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Introduction
- 1 Good Construction, Functionality, and Aesthetic Appeal
- 2 The Meaning of Beauty
- 3 Multiplicity of Meaning in Twentieth-Century Theories
- 4 Words and Works
- 5 Looking Forward
- Notes
- Index
1 - Good Construction, Functionality, and Aesthetic Appeal
From Vitruvius to the Eighteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 May 2021
- A Philosopher Looks at Architecture
- A Philosopher Looks at
- A Philosopher Looks at Architecture
- Copyright page
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Introduction
- 1 Good Construction, Functionality, and Aesthetic Appeal
- 2 The Meaning of Beauty
- 3 Multiplicity of Meaning in Twentieth-Century Theories
- 4 Words and Works
- 5 Looking Forward
- Notes
- Index
Summary
This chapter shows how Vitruvius developed his three fundamental categories within a naturalistic and empiricist conception of human life and perception. In the Renaissance, Leon Battista Alberti and Andrea Palladio, inspired by Neo-Platonism, took a more rationalistic, mathematical approach to beauty in their theories and their buildings. In the eighteenth century, the Scottish philosopher Lord Kames returned to Vitruvius's empiricist approach, while the French theorist Marc-Antoine Laugier, inspired by the aesthetic theory of Charles Batteux, identified beauty with the imitation of nature, but specifically with the identification of beauty with structural functionality.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Philosopher Looks at Architecture , pp. 15 - 54Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021