Journal Article

In Defence of Soft Pragmatism

Gleeson, Andrew

2025

Overview

Diminished rewards arise from attempts to establish hierarchies within the healthily variegated scope of contemporary theory. A re-emerging pragmatism is present in current architectural discourse, which frames certain modalities as indulgences. To appraise theory—if possible—it is necessary to ask what criteria exists for sorting out theory. Exploring the edges of discourse can accomplish this: to paint a simplified antipodal dialogue between differing perspectives to understand the scope of theory better. This essay uses a dialectic between Existential Theorists (those addressing contemporary issues focusing on human survival) and Esoteric Theorists (those addressing a myriad of topics that are specialised and not as clearly relevant to contemporary topics). Following this analysis, I deconstruct the boundaries between these two modalities to cast into doubt the methods for appraising theory. This is bolstered by a brief reminder of the lessons of Pragmatism in the last hundred years and follows with the stubborn reminders of post-structuralism. William Blake, who revealed a path towards radical subjectivity, is treated as a proto-post-structuralist. All of this is in service to a deep scepticism of appraisal and a plea for a “softer pragmatism,” one that softens the hard boundaries between the variegated modalities of theory. 

• Publisher: Architecture Theory Chair (TU Delft) and Stitching
• Subject: Pragmatism