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Phronēsis and Dao: Cultivating Ethics and Wisdom in the Process of Making Architecture

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Abstract

Contemporary China, the largest construction site in the world, is the centre of production of architectural ‘vessels’ that are compacted with technical and scientific knowledge. Nevertheless, traditional wisdom and personal cultivation is often neglected in this process of creating architecture. This paper makes a connection between the Chinese ideogram of 道 (dao = way), with the Greek term of φρόνησις (phronesis = practical wisdom), in the context of architecture. We argue that both terms bring forth the importance of ethics and practical wisdom in the making of architecture, as a process of cultivation. This argument is discussed through two case studies: a historical Chinese garden (Sima Guang’s ‘Garden of Solitary Enjoyment’), as a manifestation of Dao, and an educational situation from a contemporary architectural design studio in a school of architecture, as a manifestation of phronēsis. Both these diverse examples offer a possibility to see architecture as the creation of ‘vessels for life’ where ‘vessel’ and ‘life’ are inseparable.

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Notes

  1. We distinguish the Confucian Dao from the Daoist Dao. Whilst both schools consider Dao as a spontaneous ongoing process, the Daoist Dao is mainly envisaged as being self-oriented—one follows certain rituals to pursue individual longevity or spiritual freedom. This self-oriented approach to the Daoist Dao is not incongruent with that of the Confucian Dao for which a social dimension is indispensable.

  2. Recent scholarship has increasingly echoed Hall and Ames’ view by emphasising that dao is a path which one can actively engage. See (Shun and Wong 2004, 141-2) (Wolf and Koethe 2010, 8).

  3. This term ‘world’ as used by Hall and Ames (1987) does not refer to the empirical world, but is akin to their interpretation of tian or Heaven (207), which they read not as a preexisting principle which gives birth to and nurtures a world independent of itself. Tian is rather a general designation for the phenomenal world as it emerges of its own accord. Hall and Ames consider that tian, or the phenomenal world and cultivating the self have a correlativity, as evidenced in Mencuius’ assertion, He ‘who realizes his natural tendency realizes tian’. (Mencius, 50 7A 1) We follow their use of this term ‘world’ in our discussion of cultivating the self.

  4. Sim (2007, 23–25) discussed the similarity between Confucius’ junzi, the exemplary person who fulfils Dao and Aristotle’s phronimos, the person who has phronesis. Yu (2007, 25) suggested Confucius’ dao corresponding to Aristotle’s eudaimonia which he translated as happiness.

  5. For discussion on Confucian scholars’ garden as a practice of dwelling, see Zhuang (2012).

  6. Sima Guang ‘Record of the Garden of Solitary Enjoyment’ from Sima Wen gong wen ji (Taipei, 1967), translated by Paul Clifford, see Keswick and Jencks (1978, 97) and Harrist (1993).

  7. Cf. Hall and Ames (1987, 274–283).

  8. For similarities between Confucius and Aristotle on this, see Kupperman (1999, 153–155).

  9. Also see Cheng (1987, 51–70).

  10. For previous discussion on this topic from a Confucian perspective, see Makeham (1998), Harrist (1993), Yang (2000), and Zhuang (2012). The concept of Dao, however, was not brought into these discussions.

  11. The names of the participants have been changed in order to secure their privacy. The key study is part of a wider doctorate study about ethics and architectural design that was accomplished through participant observation (Koutsoumpos 2009).

  12. ‘All scientific knowledge is thought to be able of being taught and what comes within its range of being learned. And all teaching is based upon previous knowledge’. Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle 1937, sec. 1139b 29). See also: Joachim (1951, 192).

  13. We should also note an asymmetry between the two case studies. The fact that it is rather possible to justify that Sima Guang lived a virtuous life, while we cannot justify Mark’s future moral stance. The historical perspective in the one case allows an overview that is not possible in the level of the contemporary design studio.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Architecture, National Technical University of Athens, Patision 42, 10682, Athens, Greece

    Leonidas Koutsoumpos

  2. Department of Modern Languages, University of Exeter Queen’s Building, Exeter, EX4 4QH, UK

    Yue Zhuang

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  1. Leonidas Koutsoumpos
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  2. Yue Zhuang
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Correspondence to Leonidas Koutsoumpos.

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Koutsoumpos, L., Zhuang, Y. Phronēsis and Dao: Cultivating Ethics and Wisdom in the Process of Making Architecture. Fudan J. Hum. Soc. Sci. 9, 213–228 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-015-0113-8

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