One of the many "conceivable practical consequences of signs" is that they can
be ignored, and if those ignored signs will be taking up space on a city
street, eventually they will be demolished (or never built in the first
place)
Which is why the sword of judgment hangs heavier above architecture than upon
any other imaginative art.
How can a "pragmatist" can ignore it?
The pragmatist, who is concerned with architecture, needs to propose on
what that judgment should be based.
For Sullivan, judgment should be based on responsibility to the public -
specifically, his American public with their "subtle ideal of
self-government", and "altruistic conception of a fundamental right to the
pursuit of happiness", the "luminous spirit of Democracy" , at his
historical moment when the "national adolescence has passed" on "the
threshold of a new era"
Sullivan wants the forms of architecture to exemplify that responsibility --
to lift Americans out of their "narrow groove of self interest" for which the
social fabric "exists only for personal profit and exploitation" He would
attack those buildings which "signify the morbid brain"
"Nothing more clearly reflects the status and tendencies of a people than the
character of its buildings. They are emanations of the people; they visualize
for us the soul of our people. They are an open book. And by this sign, the
tendency of today is disquieting"
(above quotes taken from "Kindergarten Chats", chapter XIX, "Responsibility:
the Public")
******************
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Frances wrote:
>My understanding is that the pragmatist is presumably concerned
with the "conceivable" practical consequences of signs, such as
the truth signified by theories. It is the "concept" of likely
effects that is made concrete in experience by theories that are
made from facts.
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