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Abstract

The Idea of a Social Science
Jerker Lundequist, Dept. of Design Methodology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.

This paper presents the ideas of the philosopher Peter Winch regarding the interpretation and understanding of the meaning of the life forms and the forms of praxis that constitute society, as expressed in his book The Idea of a Social Science. Winch outlines a general research programme for the social sciences, using form of life as the key concept. Other important concepts like rule, praxis and language game are so to say given their meaning by the key concept ofform of life. In this paper I argue that these ideas have certain implications for the architectural research process: how architectural research ought to be structured, and how the aims and goals of architectural research ought to be defined.

I propose that the fundamental questions of architectural research are philosophical, which means that every research project in this field must be related to the key question of what architecture really is. The fundamental questions of architecture must be analyzed a priori. Before the researcher starts his empirical research, he must define what the research project is all about.

Every architectural research project aims, I argue, at providing a unique and situation-determined answer to the philosophical question of what architecture really is. The different aspects of architecture - likeform, function and structure - merge into just one perspective, that views the building as a limited whole. This understanding of the whole presupposes a discussion of questions that are conceptual, not empirical.

I argue that this perspective has some very important theoretical and practical implications for the development of methodologies for architectural research. The clarification of architectural concepts must be considered the kernel of architectural research and I also propose that the overall aim of architectural research must be defined as the articulation of the praxis of architecture.

Keywords: architecture, social science, interpretation,
understanding, concept, rule, family likeness,
language game, form of life, praxis, limited whole.

I denna artikel redovisas filosofen Peter Winchs tolkning av Wittgensteins livsformsbegrepp, och vad detta begrepp kan innebära för vårt sätt att se både på samhället och på forskningen om samhället.