Can architecture help us find our place and path in the complex modern world? Does it have the power to restore individuals to a whole, to a world, to a community? Expanding on Giedion's assertion that the primary duty of modern architecture lies in interpreting a way of life that is valid for our time, philosopher Karsten Harries responds that architecture must serve a common ethos.

However, if architecture is to meet this duty, it must first free itself from the dominant formalist approach and transcend the idea that its primary purpose is the endless production of different versions of the "decorated shed." Through a series of persuasive and balanced arguments, Harries questions the assumptions long held by architects and architectural theorists—assumptions that have contributed to the marginalization and ongoing identity crisis of architecture.

Initially, his critique focuses on what he calls the "aesthetic approach," concentrating on the problems of decoration and ornament. He then turns to the language of architecture. If the primary duty of architecture indeed lies in interpretation, in what sense can we say that architecture is capable of speaking, and what should it be telling us?

Expanding on the propositions of Martin Heidegger, Harries reexamines the relationship between building and the idea and meaning of dwelling. The debt of architecture, Harries observes, is to the community, but the ethical function of architecture is inevitably political. He concludes by examining these seemingly paradoxical functions.

Karsten Harries is a professor emeritus of Philosophy at Yale University.

"If there is any hope for the revitalization of architectural theory, it lies outside the schools of architecture and the self-satisfied circles of famous architects who travel the globe and present themselves as thinkers. It would be a blessing if this task were handed over to sober individuals with rigorous intellectual criteria and an authentically amateur love for architecture. The fact that this is indeed possible is once again demonstrated by Karsten Harries, professor of philosophy at Yale University." Mark Lilla, London Review of Books