After completing a Master’s of Architecture (MArch) degree in Chris Alexander’s program at UC Berkeley in 1988, I worked with him at The Center for Environmental Structure (CES) for six years. During that time, I managed the construction of the San Jose Homeless Shelter, the Upham house, the Palo Alto house, and assisted on the designs for the LaMar house, a number of large housing projects, including the University of Oregon student housing, Agate St. housing, Podunk housing, Sacramento delta housing, and Aspen housing. In all these endeavors, in seeking the appropriate form, Chris would often reference the being that was trying to come to life or become present or more present in the thing we were designing or making. This led me to ask an important question.

1. What is being?

In the course of this work, I began to develop an understanding of this being and began to access and operationalize this understanding. But there seemed to be something ad hoc about it. As a practical matter, and as an empiricist raised in our materialist culture, it was perhaps adequate for the immediate task, but was there something deeper? The Nature of Order develops an understanding of the phenomena of being through examination and exploration of wholeness and the field of centers.¹ This understanding is built upon an empiric scientific perspective tied to matter. This exploration responds to the how of being.

The exploration inevitably also reaches out beyond the empirical experimental method of the natural sciences to the what. What is this being-in-itself? The exploration of the “luminous ground” (in volume 4 of The Nature of Order) tries to make headway on this fundamental issue and frames it in a way at least partially palatable to the modern materialist mindset, expanding on concepts originally put forward in The Timeless Way of Building.

One particularly striking passage about being is found in Chapter 27 of that work, “The Kernel of the Way”:

Indeed this ageless character has nothing, in the end, to do with languages. The language and the processes, which stem from it, merely release the fundamental order which is native to us. They do not teach us, they only remind us of what we know already, and of what we shall discover time and time again, when we give up our ideas and opinions, and do exactly what emerges from ourselves.² (emphasis added)

But what exactly is this order which is native to us? What is this being? Where does it come from and where is it going? The philosophical inquiry into the question of being has confronted and engaged humanity since ancient time. This inquiry is called metaphysics. And this inquiry still today provides a valuable avenue of exploration in our work as builders and architects.

In this essay I will outline some of the basic features of metaphysics, showing some similarities to the approach outlined in The Nature of Order. I will also describe how an understanding of beauty informed by metaphysics can aid architects and builders in the quest of making places rooted in the Good and the True and may point to the ground of all being—that which people call God. In short, Yes, being exists; yes, we can know it; and yes, we can choose to act in harmony with it.

2. Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the science of being as such. It is the organized body of knowledge and experience that examines precisely the question: What is being as such? What I present here is only a brief outline of ideas and main concepts in metaphysics. While it is possible to achieve some understanding of this subject through reading and reasoning, a true understanding is built on practice and experience. Thus this brief paper will outline a structure and point towards a practice. Undertaking that practice is a deeply personal choice and activity. It harkens to the ancient understanding of true philosophy as a practice—a love of wisdom and truth in living.³

3. Judgment of existence

Fundamental to the understanding of metaphysics is the “judgement of existence.”

We face reality every day. Sadly, this simple statement is revolutionary in our time. However, a key to understanding being is the realization that what is in front of us, what we confront at each moment, is in fact real. A simple exercise makes this clear. We judge the existence of the door enabling us to walk through it. We judge the existence of the tree and avoid hitting it.

In every case, we use our intelligence to validate this judgement but instantly move on to the practical matter of using that data. But we can also admire the reality before us—this is of fundamental importance, a humble stance before what is. Training and conscious practice in judgement of existence can open a new kind of perception and provide a gateway to accessing and ultimately knowing something about being as such.

This is similar to the training one undergoes in following the approach outlined in The Nature of Order. An important aspect of work based on the principles in The Nature of Order is confronting what is real. This is a difficult task in a world saturated with media, imagination, and ideology; but facing reality is the first step in exploring the fundamental ground of being. It is in this commonality with metaphysics that new insights into understanding and implementing The Nature of Order can be found.

4. Initial steps: Distinctions

In order to help with this difficult task, it is good to make some primary distinctions.  In my everyday life I am pragmatically and efficiently oriented to the the problems of life; the exploration of metaphysics (and the ideas in The Nature of Order) is aided by a reorienting of this everyday mind-set. The following initial distinctions can help with this refocusing.

Thought vs. Experience

We mostly see what we think we see as opposed to actually seeing. We may often be thinking about what we experience rather than experiencing it. We may be categorizing, sorting, comparing concepts rather than admiring the fact of existence. The pursuit of metaphysics relies on direct experience.

Reason vs. Intelligence

Another way of saying this is: Pursuit of logic vs. seeking to know what exists before us. Reason, tied up as it is primarly with concepts and imagination, is seeking its own inner consistency. Intelligence is seeking for the truth in the reality before us. Metaphysics relies on intelligence.

Ideology vs. Reality

In ideology there is emphasis on the idea created by the individual; this activity is inner focused. In facing reality there is a humble stance towards what is “other” that transcends us; this activity is outer focused. Metaphysics is founded on facing reality.

These distinctions help create a starting point for an organized exploration of being as such.

5. Discerning levels of being

The foundation of all our human experience is the fact I exist. We also recognize in our common sense many other kinds of existence. For example, the inorganic existence of a rock is different from the plant existence of a flower; and that plant existence is different from the animal existence of a fish or a dog; and an animal existence is different from the rational and spiritual existence of a human person.

But even in appreciating these differences, these modalities, we recognize a commonality of existence.

What is this commonality? What is this being?

6. A demonstration of the immaterial nature of being

One of the immediate stumbling blocks for one undertaking study in The Nature of Order is the reliance on concepts that are foreign to modern materialist thinking. An understanding of the role of soul, of life, and other immaterial realities are fundamental in The Nature of Order. Basic metaphysics offers a simple demonstration that can help with this objection. Take for example a brown table—a specific individual material reality with its specific color brown. And then take “brownness”—a universal which we can all access. It is immaterial.

That is, our knowledge linked to matter is singular—a specific brown table. But our knowledge linked to a concept is universal—brownness. We can say of this universal: it is the being of brownness. It is immaterial; it has existence separately from the physical reality. This is an example of using our intelligence to know one small aspect of the truth and in its non-physical reality. “Brownness” exists and is immaterial.⁴

7. Examining the statement: This is

Having completed these preparatory steps, we are ready to begin in earnest the exploration of being.  We move from concepts and universals to metaphysics in the simplest statement we can make  “This is.”

“This” points to the what, “what it is,” and is a logical description based on recognition.

Most of our time we focus on the “this.” We assimilate the abstractions we create and put to use in our practical, hyper efficient and logical world. The natural movement of our intelligence is to question what we perceive; and certainly we refine our understanding of things over time. We ask the questions—What is it? For what is it? From where is it? How was it made? How does it change? And we use the resulting abstractions to navigate our everyday life.

But these labels are only a small part of the whole.  What about the “is?”

“Is” denotes the existence of the subject, “that it is”; its being. Metaphysics is concerned with the second term: existence per se or being as such.

This existence is of an entirely different order than the abstractions of the “this.” The fact of its existence, and the wonder of that fact, are fundamental to our intelligence’s quest to know. Training and practice in metaphysics helps us to first apprehend and then admire the “is”—the pure existence of that which is other than me.

8. Induction: The proper use of intelligence

Having looked at this simple statement and having begun to admire the existence, the “is” of what I apprehend, how should I proceed? In exploring the question of “being as such” there are two approaches: deduction and induction. Deduction is reasoning to conclusions from stated premises. This typical and modern approach quickly separates us from the reality before us as we become enmeshed in our concepts, logic, and imagination. Induction is the process of generalizing based on observed instances. This approach maintains contact with the reality before you; it is closely linked with the judgement of existence described above.

Our day-to-day existence is dominated by the deductive approach.

But induction is a natural operation of our intelligence and the best or only avenue to make progress in apprehending being as such. As modern people, we have pretty much lost access to this natural operation. You could say we are all damaged, we are sick in our intelligence. We are overwhelmed by our imaginations, other people’s opinions, and the products of a culture that values easy judgements of surfaces rather than difficult judgements of real value.

We have not used the best of our intelligence in seeking truth.

In metaphysics, I proceed in rehabilitating my intelligence through using induction, to stay present with the reality I am facing. Induction is founded on observation; it avoids logic, reason, or explanation. In this regard it is very similar to the early training needed to develop an understanding of wholeness or field of centers as described in The Nature of Order.⁵

There are many ways to begin to prepare the intelligence for the task of induction. Work in any craft can help; a woodworker confronts a raw piece of wood, the wood resists, or “pushes back,” and forces the woodworker to actually see what is before them—there is no faking it. In my experience, hatha yoga and Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement (ATM) help bring somatic reality to the fore in a direct way.  Similarly, choral singing requires attention to multiple levels of transitory physical, and emotional realities aimed at making something beautiful. Camera work when pursued with awareness can help one open to what actually is.

Essentially any practice that focuses on the reality at hand rather than our thoughts about that reality is a good beginning preparation to rehabilitate our intelligence through induction.

9. First induction: Experience, not concept, in facing a human person

So how do we use induction, this process of intelligent observation, in exploring being as such? In what follows I will describe the outline of the process. Knowing the outline of this process is only a starting point; its only value is in doing—in exercising my intelligence in engaging the reality I am facing.

In this first exercise we take as subject a human person. The human person encompasses all modalities of being and so is the most proper subject to learn about being. Facing a person, I observe, and then admire, each aspect of this person. I appreciate their physical matter, their qualities, their actions, their relations, and finally their human nature and their existence as a unique subject. All these are distinct modalities of being. Each has a distinct type of being.

In this effort, facing each of these modalities, I am seeking not the description, not the this, but to discover the being, the is. I am using my perception, my sensitivity, to lead my intelligence to discover the being of each modality. Each of these modalities has its own sense of being. And through the exercise of the judgement of existence in the process of induction, I can begin to discern more clearly those particular modalities of being.

Let’s examine this process a bit more closely. I am sitting with a friend. Here are some of the modalities of being I observe.

1. Quantities: A person has quantities. They have a material presence, take up space, have certain color hair, certain texture of skin, the color of his eyes.

2. Actions: A person acts. They move, they speak, they express passions, emotions.

3. Qualities: A person has qualities. They may be an athlete, a musician, a writer. They may possess certain virtues or abilities. These are interior, involving the individual alone.

4. Relations: A person is in relation. They have relationships to others and to their environment. These are exterior as relation demands an “other.”

5. Human Nature: A person is a human. As a human being they partake in the universal experience of human nature.

6. Unique Subject: A person is a singular individual. They are a completely and radically autonomous unique individual.

I can make many statements, many judgements of existence, concerning each of these aspects or modalities of a person. Intelligence, through induction, discovers that in each of these modalities there exists some aspect of that being of which I have no sensitive experience.

At this point, I ask the question: Can any of these be the source of being as such?

The first four modalities—quantities, actions, qualities, and relation—are subject to movement, to change. We can call them accidental. And since they are subject to change, they are not the source of being. The source will not be subject to change.

The last two modalities—human nature and unique subject—are essential and distinct. But we are seeking being as such, the source: a singular cause of determination. And since there are these two essential modalities neither can be the source which is singular.

But there must be a source, and so I conclude that there must be something underlying all these modalities which is the first, the source. What is this source of being as such?

I stay with the observation of these modalities of being and eventually come to know the reality of the being which informs each modality. I keep seeking the source of this being. And at some point, in my process of induction, through my intelligence, I can become sure of the reality of a source even though it has no sensitive component. This is the being of a simple principle, a singular source of determination or form, being as being. It may be called soul or spirit, but we will call it substance. And we will recognize it as the source of all the modalities we discern in the reality of the human person.

10. Analogic intelligence

The knowing of this substance through induction is the first discovery of our analogical intelligence. This knowing is distinct from the functioning of our logical reasoning. The knowledge of being is always analogical not logical. The logical seeks first what is common and then seeks to understand the difference, whereas the analogical first sees the differences and then seeks to understand the commonalities. What is common to the being of each modality? It is in pursuing this question that I begin to understand the essential reality of being, even though this knowledge is not available to me as a sense experience.

In some ways, what I have just described traces the process one goes through in learning the principles in The Nature of Order—one learns to observe, not to think; to see without the color of premade concepts; and ultimately to develop an understanding of a non-physical reality which is nevertheless impinging on the physical, and which is accessible through the effort of our intelligence based on our sensitivity. This philosophic basis is important. The fact that an ancient practice has traced out a similar trail relieves and provides broader context for some of the inevitable confrontations a person applying the principles from The Nature of Order will encounter. The practice of metaphysics can help light a path to knowledge and action in design and building.

Yes, being exists; yes, we can know it; and yes, we can choose to act in harmony with it. The choice is founded on the dignity of every autonomous human person and is supported by the results of these explorations in both metaphysics and in the concepts of centers and wholeness put forth in The Nature of Order.

11. Second induction: another exploration toward the source

Through the first induction we have answered, “What is it?” The substance: the singular source of determination; the foundation of all the modalities of being in a person. My intelligence now turns to another question, “For what is it?” Or what is the finality of this substance.

I can examine three essential modalities of being in the perfect state, at the level of being.

1. Existence: that is, being in act. Something exists or does not exist; it cannot exist “more.” Existence is then of itself in a perfect state.

2. The True: that is, the being true. Something is not “more true” or “less true.” The True is then in its perfect state.

3. The Good: that is, the being good. Again, something is not “more good” or “less good.” The Good is then also in its perfect state.

But in the process of this second induction, I observe these states and can detect two aspects of the True and the Good in the human person. This person is capable of knowing and their intelligence is moving towards complete knowing, a perfect state. Similarly, they are capable of loving and their will is moving towards complete loving. Under the attraction of the perfect state the imperfect moves towards the perfect.

We can also examine other states of the less essential modalities of being which we looked at earlier: quantities, qualities, and relations; they are referred to as the level of life. They are tied to matter and so always changing, in movement. In the process of the second induction, we examine this motion.

Take the quality of being a musician as an example. A musician capable of playing music moves towards playing music. The imperfect state moving towards the perfect. The order is always the same. The imperfect implies, or demands, the perfect.

In the second induction, my intelligence observes and contemplates this movement, imperfect to perfect, in all these modalities and seeks a common cause at the level of being. In every case I discover that being is ordered towards its finality, its perfection. The varying states and their movement have a cause, and that cause must be common. I see from this induction that being tends to the finality, toward the perfect. Final cause attracting imperfect towards perfection. And in all cases being is ordered towards a state of perfection. In answer to the question about being, “For what is it?”—it is for its finality, its perfect state.

12. Summary of second induction

At the level of being, I find the perfect attracting the imperfect. This is the essential and spiritual nature of these three essential modalities of being—existence, the true, and the good—in their perfect state. At the level of life, I find what is imperfect moving towards the perfect. This is the accidental, non-essential, contingent aspects of qualities and relationships.

At the level of being, I observe attraction. At the level of life, we observe the opportunity to choose to cooperate with the movement toward the perfect.

This twofold motion is also descriptive of and consistent with the quote from The Timeless Way of Building:

Indeed, this ageless character has nothing, in the end, to do with languages. The language and the processes, which stem from it, merely release the fundamental order which is native to us. They do not teach us, they only remind us of what we know already, and of what we shall discover time and time again, when we give up our ideas and opinions, and do exactly what emerges from ourselves.⁶ (emphasis added)

I conclude from the second induction that attraction to the perfect state is an observed fact. And that, at the level of life, movement from imperfect to perfect is based on our choice to cooperate; our cooperation in this movement is our choice.

The two inductions demonstrate a general principle: that the human person can access the interiority of being through using exterior means—using sense and intelligence to reach beyond sensitivity to a beginning grasp of the source, of being as such. In short, exteriority leads to interiority.

The work involved in applying the principles in The Nature of Order, although clothed in an empiric understanding of the how of things, ultimately must be concerned with the why. In this regard the study and practice of metaphysics lends additional weight to the approach in The Nature of Order and provides added footing to undertake the work of making.

13. On Beauty

We examined above some accidental and essential qualities of being.

But what about beauty? We experience beauty in the natural world and in the works of mankind. Beauty is the underlying and overarching concern of architecture. It is no surprise that beauty is a fundamental concern in The Nature of Order. But is beauty an accidental quality or modality of being, or is it a fundamental and essential modality?

Beauty, in Plato’s view, is ranked with the True and the Good—that is, as one of the three fundamental transcendentals. However, in this metaphysics, Beauty is not a fundamental transcendental, but is in motion towards the perfect; it is a signpost toward the finality of the Good and the True.

The discourse between these two views about the fundamental nature of beauty has continued since ancient times, mainly forgotten in the modern post-Enlightenment era but still open to investigation. I will here only make a few observations with respect to metaphysics and provide some sources for further exploration.But ultimately, and it seems to me necessarily, this investigation turns us toward the contemplation of the source of all being, or as St.Thomas Aquinas put it: that which people call God.

1. Plato, in the dialogue titled Symposium, records Socrates recounting Diotima’s teaching on love and beauty.

2. For St. Thomas, beauty is id quod visum placet, “that which pleases upon being seen.” Commentators have noted that pleasure here includes both sensation and intelligence and is related to desire, and that “seen” includes all perception.

St. Thomas also states in the Summa Theologiae that beauty requires three things: “integrity or perfection, since those things which are impaired are by the very fact ugly; due proportion or harmony; and lastly, brightness or clarity, whence things are called beautiful which have a bright color” (ST I, 39, 8).

3. Some commentators have rendered St. Thomas’s three principles in a way strikingly like properties of wholeness enumerated in The Nature of Order:

Integritas: Integrity or perfection (wholeness)

Proportio: Proportion or harmony

Claritas: Brightness or clarity (radiance flowing towards you)

In fact, John Dadosky in The Eclipse and Recovery of Beauty (University of Toronto Press, 2014) examines the fifteen properties of wholeness put forward in The Nature of Order in light of Aquinas’s definition and sorts and analyzes the properties according to these three categories as part of his study of beauty in light of Lonergan’s work.

4. Jacques Maritain in “Art and Scholasticism” examines the dichotomy of beauty as a property of being (finality) or perfection of being (movement). Including extensive notes (especially footnote 57) on St. Thomas’s writings in “Commentary on the Sentences”; “De Veritatae (on Truth)”; and in additional passages from the Summa Theologiae.

5. Matthew Wilson in The Vision of the Soul (The Catholic University Press, 2017) examines Truth, Goodness, and Beauty in the western tradition relying heavily on both Aquinas and Maritain, especially in Chapters 8, 9, and 10.

6. Pope St. John Paul II in “Letter to Artists” ( 1999), described the role of the artist, articulating for current times the age old tradition of the “the Way of Beauty” (Via pulchratudinas).

These sources and others like them illustrate and support the metaphysical view that beauty is an accidental modality of being and in motion towards the perfect. This is also the conclusion ultimately reached by Chris. Although he had studiously avoided the spiritual aspects of his theories in his teaching in the public funded secular university, where any whiff of religious thought would most definitely not be welcome, in his 2007 article, “The Long Path that Leads from the Making of Our World to God” he makes the following striking statement:

All this, the experiments, the vision, the consequential impact on planning and architecture, seem to have a unique ability to point to the reality of God.⁸ (emphasis added)

14. Towards some conclusions

Metaphysics is the practice of dealing face-to-face with reality and, in that effort, discovering being as such. This fundamental life tool is also useful in supporting our work in making and building. It lends support in applying principles in The Nature of Order.

The ancient practice of metaphysics provides support to those builders and architects who are using the principles of The Nature of Order when doubts fostered by our materialist culture arise and threaten to distract from the essential effort. Metaphysics can also provide an equanimity to help deal with the many difficulties which arise in applying the approach in the Nature of Order in today’s world of building.

Seeking truth is a lonely path in our day; this work is in opposition to the spirit of our times. But there is source of optimism in the understanding, through the practice of metaphysics, that all being and all aspects of being, in their natural state, are tending toward their perfection. And that it is possible for our work as builders and architects to align with this truth. This, I believe, is what attracts so many to Alexander’s thought and theory.

Which leads to the question: How to best cooperate with this movement? The obvious answer from metaphysics is to choose to use our intelligence and to develop a clearer understanding of being. Operationally, there are many ways to actualize this choice.

My conclusion is: I learn the most, and the best, about the being we seek to encounter, in the uniqueness of the human person, and in particular in the uniqueness of the person that I love. It is the appreciation of the radical otherness (of the being) of my friend (in whom I have chosen to see their essential goodness) that pulls me further out of myself, my own little world, to the space where I can love always more. For me as an architect, this experience helps me judge my work not by some immanent standard or cramped comparison to my own limits but always looking to the ever-expanding capacity to love more and to ask, how is this work helping to do that?

And it is possible to apply this learning in the work we produce so that it—the work of making—can be a signpost pointing to a deeper understanding of what is true and good. Following the choice to cooperate, we seek to make, in our work, places to experience this truth and to point to this fuller reality.

Pope St. John Paul II sums it up in his “Letter to Artists”:

Art must make perceptible,

and as far as possible attractive,

the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God.

It must therefore translate into meaningful terms

that which is in itself ineffable.

This is a very good summary of my goal as an architect and builder. The many tools that Chris provides in The Nature of Order provide a roadmap. The understanding and practice of metaphysics can provide insight, strength, and support as we pursue this path.

I came to study with Chris looking for a truthful way to practice architecture; I found the beginnings of a path that engaged me in a broader search for truth, for being. I am indebted to his work as it formed the basis for my professional life in working to improve campus environments. When I began to learn about metaphysics, many threads came together. I now hope and believe that every true effort to make a place of beauty can help focus those who experience it towards the fundamental good, the source of all being. What is important now is to make the choice each day to live in truth and to seek the good.

Notes:

1. Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe (Berkeley, CA: Center for Environmental Structure, 2002-2005).
2. Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building (New York: Oxford University Press): 531.
3. In large part what follows draws on the work of Fr Dominique-Marie Phillipe’s explication of Aristotle and Aquinas, and the amplification and extension on this work by Fr. Dominique Faure. Fr. Faure's work is masterful, any errors in this summary are strictly my own.
4. Of course, there are much more involved epistemic demonstrations one could point to in the areas of cybernetics, or the work of McCulloch or Whitehead, but this simple example is helpful in beginning the exploration of being.
5. Interesting aside is that Bateson in his books, A Sacred Unity, Mind and Nature, and Steps to an Ecology of Mind relies heavily on induction as the method for approaching wholeness in the biological and anthropological understanding of the world.
6. Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building, 531.
7. The article referenced above, “Ontoluminescence: Bright God and Brilliant Creatures in Thomas Aquinas” (at https://www.sacredarchitecture.org/articles/ontoluminescence_bright_god_and_brilliant_creatures_in_thomas_aquinas), includes extensive footnotes providing a short bibliography of sources exploring St. Thomas’ definition. Jacques Maritain in “Art and Scholasticism” examines the dichotomy of beauty as a property of being (finality) or perfection of being (movement), including extensive notes (especially footnote 57) on St. Thomas's writings in “Commentary on the Sentences”; “De Veritatae (on Truth)”; and additional passages from the Summa Theologiae.
8. https://www.buildingbeauty.org/resource-center-entries/2019/8/6/christopher-alexander-the-long-path-that-leads-from-the-making-of-our-world-to-god.