Equalities of wellbeing in philosophy and architecture

哲学和建筑如何为我们提供理解平等的独特方式，以及这如何对个人和社区的福祉产生影响？这是本项目要解决的主要问题。我们将探讨平等概念的另一种历史，这种概念在17世纪的斯宾诺莎哲学和建筑思想中都有体现。在这里，平等是从比例的角度来理解的，这种思维方式可以导致增加福利平等的新战略。标准的平等概念起源于启蒙运动的社会契约传统，并依赖于每个人都是自主的理性主体的假设。由此产生的理性主体道德平等的概念支撑了世纪的政治思想（如卢梭和康德）和今天占主导地位的正义理论（如罗尔斯和森）。所有人在道德上平等的概念是政治平等和普遍权利论点的基础。然而，尽管自由民主国家越来越致力于公民的政治平等，但在过去50年里，它们的社会在经济上越来越不平等。最近的研究，如威尔金森和皮克特的精神水平已经证明了收入平等和福祉之间的联系。福祉和“幸福”作为国家进步的指标，现在是公共议程上的优先事项。我们感兴趣的是发现一个不同于标准道德政治意义的平等概念是否可以为收入平等和更大福祉的论点提供更好的基础。这种替代性的平等概念与17世纪巴鲁克·斯宾诺莎哲学中的人类主体性概念有关。斯宾诺莎认为，人不是平等的理性主体，而是根本上不平等的个体，他们的推理能力和自由不断地随着他们的身体构造、政治环境、情感和社会状况而变化。他建议我们应该放弃绝对道德平等的假设，转而关注几何比例和数学比例的概念，以便理解是什么定义了个体，使他们与他人区分开来，并使他们结合在一起成为社区。出现的是一个比例平等的概念，如果付诸实践（斯宾诺莎认为），将导致所有个人之间更大的幸福平等。我们的论点是，以斯宾诺莎的方式思考平等，可以为社会追求公民福祉的平等提供基础。在建筑中，将平等的比例概念与福祉联系起来是一个悠久的传统。从维特鲁威的经典著作《论建筑》，到文艺复兴和启蒙运动的美学理想，再到现代主义的乌托邦建筑和社会住房项目，建筑师们一直坚持比例与和谐的几何标准。在20世纪，这些标准与通过住房设计产生更大的福利平等密切相关。虽然这种联系在1960 - 70年代得到了承认，生活空间标准得到了保护，但在过去的25年里，由于大量经济适用房的推动，这种联系被忽视了。由于建筑理论和实践的重点仍然是增加福祉，因此有必要以独特的方式解释和讨论比例平等的关系。在项目中，我们将对斯宾诺莎的比例平等概念进行哲学分析，并将其与案例研究相结合，看看如何在建筑理论和经济适用房设计中实现比例平等。我们将咨询专业团体和慈善机构，旨在通过收入平等和住房标准实现更大的福祉。最后的成果将是一系列文件和一部纪录片，供广大观众观看。

How do philosophy and architecture give us a distinctive way of understanding equality, and how can this have impacts on the wellbeing of individuals and communities? This is the primary question this project aims to address. We will look at an alternative history of the concept of equality found in both the 17th-century philosophy of Spinoza and in architectural thought. Here, equality is understood in terms of proportion, a way of thinking that can lead to new strategies for increasing equalities of wellbeing.Standard notions of equality originate in the Enlightenment social contract tradition and depend on the assumption that every human being is an autonomous, rational subject. The resulting notion of the moral equality of reasoning subjects undergirds both 18th century political thought (e.g. Rousseau and Kant) and dominant theories of justice today (e.g. Rawls and Sen). The notion that all persons are moral equals is foundational in arguments for political equality and universal rights. However, while liberal democracies have increasingly committed to the political equality of citizens, their societies have become less and less economically equal over the past fifty years. Recent studies such as Wilkinson and Pickett's The Spirit Level have demonstrated the link between income equality and wellbeing. Wellbeing and "happiness" as indicators of national progress are now high on the public agenda. We are interested in finding out whether a concept of equality different from the standard moral-political sense, might provide a better foundation for arguments for income equality and greater wellbeing.This alternative concept of equality is connected to an alternative concept of human subjectivity found in the 17th-century philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Spinoza sees people not as equal rational subjects, but as fundamentally unequal individuals whose capacity for reasoning and freedom constantly varies with their bodily constitution, political circumstances, and emotional and social situation. He suggests that we should abandon the assumption of absolute moral equality, and instead look to ideas of geometrical proportion and mathematical ratio in order to understand what defines individuals, distinguishes them from others, and allows them to bind together into communities. What emerges is a concept of proportional equality which, if put into practice (Spinoza believes) would result in a greater equality of wellbeing among all individuals. Our contention is that thinking about equality in this Spinozian way can provide a foundation for societies to pursue equalities of wellbeing amongst citizens.In Architecture, there is a long tradition of connecting a proportional conception of equality with wellbeing. From Vitruvius's classical treatise On Architecture, through to Renaissance and Enlightenment aesthetic ideals, through to modernist utopian building and social housing projects, architects have upheld geometric criteria of proportion and harmony. In the 20th century these criteria were strongly linked to generating greater equalities of wellbeing through housing design. While this connection was recognized, and standards of living space protected, in the 1960s-70s, it has been ignored over the past 25 years due to the drive for large quantities of affordable housing. As architectural theory and practice remain focused on increasing wellbeing, there is a need to interpret and discuss the connection to proportional equality in a distinctive way.In the project we will do philosophical analysis on Spinoza's concept of proportional equality and connect it to case studies to see how it can be realized in architectural theory and affordable housing design. We will consult with professional groups and charities aiming at greater wellbeing through income equality and housing standards. The final outcomes will be a series of papers and a documentary film that will be accessible to a wide audience.