Conceptual Problems of Architecture

Abstract

The problem of culture can be conceived only in terms of the dialectic counterplay of empiricism and generalization, of the subjective and the objective. The existence of culture is dependent upon the specific contributions of individuals; but culture is also the very condition by which individual achievements can become significant to society. Each individual is a focusing point of the general cultural situation of its time and place. According to the make-up of its personality, the cultural heritage is reflected by the individual in varying degrees of clearness and distinctness. According to its creative faculties the individual will partake in effecting those changes of the heritage which are needed to keep tradition alive. Hence one can say that in as much as individuals are conditioned by culture, culture perpetuates itself by way of individuals. In as much, however, as the individual is unique and has qualities distinct from all other individuals, he is himself the agent of cultural change. Or, in t...