The Philosophical Framework of Le Corbusier's Education: Schuré and German Idealism

Abstract

[EN] This paper seeks to demonstrate that Le Corbusier's autodidactic agenda between 1908 and 1911 reflects a consistent philosophical reasoning based on the philosophical tradition of German idealism. The vehicle of analysis is the connection between Édouard Schuré's 'Sanctuaires d'Orient', a book Le Corbusier read in 1908, and three key episodes of the subsequent period of travel. Schuré's book provides us with the philosophical framework to which he was exposed. The three episodes, in turn, are taken as case studies in order to demonstrate the correlation between the philosophical background of the book and Le Corbusier's changing attitudes during this period. The terms of this correlation are based on an evolutionary conception of history and can be synthesized as the belief in cultural progress, leading to a new society built upon the unity of science, religion and art, in a secular-sacred life attained through the recovery of a pantheistic existence, and in art and architecture as a means to an epistemological experience. I will lastly argue that this creates the basis for the lifelong influence of idealism in Le Corbusier's work and thought.