“Well then, Critobulus,” said Socrates, “what if I demonstrate that, in the first place, some people spend a lot of money on building useless houses, whereas others spend far less and build perfectly adequate houses?”
Xenophon, The Estate Manager
I wonder what features were typical of ‘useless houses’ in Athens. Did they have the ancient equivalent of a state-of-the-art entertainment center dominating the family room, or a master bath big enough to host a luncheon? Was it that size, number, and arrangement of rooms did not reasonably correspond to real human life of the household community?
I suggest that what most constituted, and constitutes, a useless house is that it does not facilitate and adorn the daily life of a family community in all its richness, dignity and simple practicality. In a useless house, ostentation or luxury eclipse true beauty and functionality. Spaces designed around technologies of entertainment and ‘communication’ take precedence over spaces for dignified work and real leisure.
In the nineteenth century William Morris echoed Socrates, succinctly stating, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
What kind of house we build is one aspect of what the Greeks call oeconomia, or the art of household management. In accord with the principles of this great art, Socrates judges the utility and fittingness of things pertaining to the household by whether they serve a truly good life there. Do they enhance virtuous living-together, and the personal relationships of the household members? A house can and should be a place where the architecture and the décor and room arrangements reflect and promote the inner and higher beauty of a well-ordered household life.
This is a matter that concerns all of us, whether our house is home to a young family, to grandparents, to a group of young professionals or to a single person.
What then is the opposite of a useless house? Perhaps it is any house whose body, or at least its innards, are literally shaped by the vibrant life of its soul—the community of persons who make a life together in it.
Xenophon (430-354 B.C.) was a soldier, historian, and philosopher of Athens. Like Plato he wrote dialogues featuring Socrates as a great teacher. Among these dialogues is Oeconomicus, translated as The Estate Manager, in which we get an insight into the structure and principles of the ancient household, and perhaps ours too.
[This post is a rethinking and representation of a piece I wrote some years ago on the same quotation.]
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Enjoyed this post. So true! Here in NJ there are many ‘useless’ houses; gargantuan species with no ambience and certainly no place I would want to live.
My husband and I are happy in our 1300 sq ft home where we enjoy every foot of space. There may be too many books and knitting yarn all around but it keeps us happy. And it absolutely feels like home!
Looking forward to your Philosophy course coming up at the ICC in 2021.
Alice, Your house sounds like a true home! I’m looking forward to the ICC Philosophy course next year too! Thanks.
I’ve taken William Morris’s advice.
I now have only a single copy of the Butcher translation of Aristotle’s Poetics in my apartment.
And a thermostat.
I recommend having the Nicomachean Ethics on hand too. And a some wood for a fire.
Dr. Cuddeback, are you trying to set up the suggestion that I read the opening chapters of Descartes’s _Meditations on First Philosophy_, also, or only Macintyre’s _After Virtue_?
Only the latter, indeed.
Agreed. Here in the vibrant Sonora Desert, we do not have much need for sitting in front of a fire and meditating on whether the sun devils are deceiving our senses to the point of questioning our ontological convictions. Only the latter, indeed.
Ooohhh, you’re looking for μεγαλοψυχία more than μεγαλοπρεπής, not μεσότητος.
Alright, let me gut to work on the suffixes.
This is an interesting topic that I’ve been thinking about while I arrange my own apartment. I’ve heard about Christopher Alexander and that each room should have it’s own specific purpose. But I have discovered that unless people come and spend time in the room and make a little mess it isn’t really lived in. I think too much order can make a place sterile. Also I’d be interested to know what you think of tv rooms. I once heard that the tv is the new hearth which can be a bad thing in some ways and not as ideal as a real hearth, but do you think watching television as a family can be a true form of communal living?
Miriam, You raise some great points. I completely agree that ‘being lived in’ is an important part of the atmosphere of a room. And I might suggest that being lived-in is actually part of the ‘order’ of the room!
Great question about a TV room. Two quick thoughts: I do think that watching television together can be a genuine form of being together. At the same time, I’d much rather that a whole room not be devoted to that form of being together, precisely because I think we should be cultivating other and richer ways of being together. Thanks for your comment!