The Death of Dogma

"No one can say what will become of our civilization when it has really met different civilizations by means other than the shock of conquest and domination. But we have to admit that this encounter has not yet taken place at the level of an authentic dialogue. That is why we are in a kind of lull or interregnum in which we can no longer practice the dogmatism of a single truth and in which we are not yet capable of conquering the skepticism into which we have stepped.” – Paul Ricoeur

Humans have an intrinsic need to cling to absolute truths, the problem is that there are few if any. As Paul Ricoeur mentions, historically societies have had centuries of accepted truths that inform their decisions, but in the modern era free of dogma we tend to flounder searching for justifications of our ideas, sometimes without ground to stand on. Skepticism in architecture could be in danger of turning our discipline into nothing more than engineering. You could say the tide has shifted with pure functionality as our new absolute truth, every decision having to be rooted in function, and artistic decisions fall by the wayside. Today sustainability seems to be increasingly playing that role, ‘sustainable’ decisions are made simply because it sounds good rather than for a solid justifiable reason. Critical Regionalism is the perfect companion to this debate, rooted in function and sensibility in a way that is sensitive to its surroundings, innovative and beautiful, it could effectively replace dogmatic thinking.

“Good architecture is able to absorb the context and become something else – innovative but rooted in its place.” 

– Rafael Moneo