Equalities of wellbeing in philosophy and architecture

哲学和建筑如何为我们提供一种理解平等的独特方式，这对个人和社区的福祉有何影响？这是本项目旨在解决的主要问题。我们将看看在17世纪斯宾诺莎哲学和建筑思想中发现的平等概念的另一种历史。在这里，平等被理解为比例，一种思维方式，可以导致新的战略，以增加福祉的平等。平等的标准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理性主体的假设。由此产生的推理主体道德平等的概念，既支撑了18世纪的政治思想（如卢梭和康德），也支撑了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观念是政治平等和普世权利的基础。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却变得越来越不平等。威尔金森（Wilkinson）和皮克特（Pickett）的《精神水平》（The Spirit Level）等近期研究表明，收入平等与幸福感之间存在联系。福祉和“幸福”作为国家进步的指标，现在已成为公共议程上的重要议题。我们感兴趣的是找出一个不同于标准道德-政治意义上的平等概念，是否可能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（Baruch Spinoza）哲学中的另一种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，而是根本不平等的个体，他们的推理和自由能力不断随着他们的身体结构、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人，将他们与他人区分开来，并使他们结合在一起形成社区。出现的是一个比例平等的概念，如果付诸实践（斯宾诺莎相信），将导致所有个人之间的福祉更加平等。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之间的幸福平等提供基础。在建筑领域，有一个悠久的传统，将平等的比例概念与幸福联系起来。从维特鲁威的经典建筑论文，到文艺复兴和启蒙运动的美学理想，再到现代主义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实现更大的福祉平等密切相关。虽然这种联系在20世纪60年代到70年代得到了认可，生活空间的标准得到了保护，但在过去的25年里，由于大量经济适用房的驱动，它被忽视了。由于建筑理论和实践仍然专注于提高幸福感，因此有必要以独特的方式解释和讨论与比例平等的联系。在这个项目中，我们将对斯宾诺莎的比例平等概念进行哲学分析，并将其与案例研究联系起来，看看它如何在建筑理论和经济适用房设计中实现。我们将与旨在通过收入平等和住房标准提高福祉的专业团体和慈善机构进行磋商。最终的成果将是一系列论文和一部纪录片，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.