Abstract

Philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s book Das Lachen der Thrakerin (1987, The Laughter of the Thracian Woman) addresses the various iterations of a single Aesop’s Fable. In the anecdote, a stargazing philosopher stumbles into a well and a maid laughs at his absentmindedness. Blumenberg suggests the various reinterpretations of the anecdote over the millennia reveal each epoch’s attitude towards philosophical endeavour. The work becomes a metanarrative when the laughter directed at diligent scholars is extended to Blumenberg and his readers. For architects, speculating about that laughter offers insights into the indeterminacy of architectural meaning. To demonstrate, this paper deconstructs two anecdotes from architectural discourse to contribute an alternate and nuanced perspective of the relationship between architecture and philosophy. The first anecdote regards a border-crossing from Le Corbusier’s writing, and the second is an epiphany from Charles Jencks. Lastly, this paper considers the creative returns potentially generated for architects through ambiguity and misunderstanding.

摘要

哲学家汉斯·布卢门伯格 (Hans Blumenberg) 的书Das Lachen der Thrakerin (1987, The Laughter of the Thracian Woman)) 解决了单个伊索寓言的各种迭代。在轶事中，一位观星的哲学家跌入一口井中，一位侍女嘲笑他的心不在焉。Blumenberg 认为，几千年来对轶事的各种重新解释揭示了每个时代对哲学努力的态度。当针对勤奋学者的笑声延伸到布卢门伯格和他的读者时，这部作品就变成了元叙事。对于建筑师来说，对这种笑声的推测提供了对建筑意义不确定性的洞察力。为了证明这一点，本文从建筑话语中解构了两个轶事，为建筑与哲学之间的关系提供了一个不同的、微妙的视角。第一个轶事是关于 Le Corbusier 作品中的边界跨越，第二个是查尔斯·詹克斯的顿悟。最后，本文考虑了通过歧义和误解可能为建筑师带来的创造性回报。