48.

Inclassical metaphysics contingency has always denoted a limitation of rea· ody to the more negative term in some modern or late·modem theories and uses
son." George di Giovanni< TheCateg( 1 γof Contingency in Hegelian Logic< in has now been superseded by a post-modernunderstanding of bO1 its complex
Selected Essays 0η G. W F. Hegel ed. Lawrence S. Stepelevich (Atlantic Highlands< meta·fictional and comic aspects (which) may mean that it will be/given some even
N.J.: Humanities Press<1993)' p. 42. more complex and positive functions in the future." / /

49. Ibid. 62. For instance in the Met hysics Book III. Part 2<
a t Nicomachaea O <
Book VI<Part 4. /
50. Jiirgen Habermas<Postmetaphysical linking: Philosophical Es ys (Cambridge<
Mass.: MIT Press<1992)<p. 14 63. Karatani<Architecture as Metaphoκ p.6. /

5 Di Giovanni< . Category
e of Contingen inHegIian ;ogicp< . 46 64. Descartes<Discourse Part II. Paragraph μ
52. Issues of contingency are discussed in Science of Lo < I<Book 2<Section
vo1 65· Descartes<Meditations Meditation ryParagraph I.
"<Chapter 2A. . eq'~1 ( te'is <
from G. F. Hegel SCienjlof Lo ctrans. V. Miller
66. Martin Heidegger. K αntand thtyProblem of Metαphysics (Bloomington: Indiana
(London: George Allen and Unwin< 1969)<p. 545· /
Universiη Press<199 <p 2 /
53· Hegelalways demanded specificiη orwh 'he called concreteness .... Few
philosophers ha~e been so critical of the type - cl~i< st~at l~~k d;ter<~i:
abs:~act
Press<1959)<p. 93·
An Iη
67. Martin Heidegger<
/
uctionto Metaphysics (New Haven: Yale Universiψ
nateness or specificity. This is the prAimary i€fec to\fkno thaw tHeIe dg ge
caJeIlled
und e rs t aJn 1 68. MarkWi ey<πu; Aκ e\ure
of Deconstruction (Cambridge. Mass.: MIT Press<
f reason ?verkunft)."Richard J. Bernst~i WhyHegel Now?< in Philosophical 1995)<p. 39· /
Pr φles:Essays in a Pragmatκ Mode (Camljfidge; P ityPress<1986)<pp. I57-I58.
j 69. Karatani< hitecture as Metaphoζ p.xx. i
54. Di Giovanni< . Categoη
e ofC?hnngen· in Hegelian Logic<:P 56

55. Bauman<Modernity and Ambi lence p. 3.

56. Zygmunt Bauman< Mode! ty and the Holocaust (Cambridge: Polity Press<
1989).
57. William E. Connolly<fblitics αndAmb uity (Madison: Universiη of Wisconsin
Press<I987)<pp. 8-9· / /
58. Rμckschlag means both misfire and backlash. With thanks to Florian Kossak and
Epigraph: William Rasch<Niklas Luhmαn sModernity: eP αradoxesof D renti·
Tatlana Schneider Fr this formu1ation
ation (Stanford: Stanford University Press<20 p. 52.
59. Philippe Boμdon<Lived-in Architectμre trans. Ger d Onn (London: Lun?
Humphries<I972)<pp. i-ii. A visit in 2 r3evealed that the changes documenteo Kojin Karatani<Architecture as Metaphor: Lαngt;age Numbeζ Money trans. Sabu
by Boudon a~enow themselves being ripped out as the project is restored" back to Kohs Cambridge<Mass.: MIT Press< 1995)<p. }αxix.
it~ original state. Inevitably<many of the new inhabitants appeared to be architects 2. Ibid.
or designers.
Clifford Geertz. Local Knowledge: F<μrther Essα in
S 1ηterpretive Anthropology (Lon-
6 To& spector< Codesof Ethics and Coercion< Architecture and Its Ethi don: Fontana. 1983)< pp. 215-2I8.
DilT s<ed. Nich as Ray (London: Routledge< 2005)< p..101

:
ιI· For a useful summary of the constraints that architects face and the limits of
6iIamafempting to use parody knowingly. I do not simply employ it in its m; 3 gn.
methodologies<see Bryan Lawson. How Designers ηlink 2nd edn. (London:
t concep
e on as a mocking dismissal ofludicrous or oulm led rituals. For mor\) Blltterworlh Architecture<1990). pp. 76~81
/ on the various ways in which parαly has been used. both llE_ivdyand pOHitiwl'y.
/ se eMa rg are Rose.
Wt Paψ Ancκ
dy: c? itω eψ3 n ?
5. SIμvetl Gro{lkidclilifi(!s r-IYeforms of uncertainty in the huilding process: indus-
InAidgeUr ers Press 1993). pp. 186~-19φ.AK~hν ill'gUt tht:l'c ' l1 illtJor
1 cl p'lf' IfililUDC( 1; 1 1 t)I< II)rI
1C3 31fin
c'IHinly
II<P ('ιlUllccrlnJllty
wo< 1 <pht1 llcert"
C inty<

/ 'A < IJ UM~Q1 tijE.h!f liiHl d/ ..<'" / iL

 UII(' 3I"'O0('. silly
- .( qμIniz:lliorl.
Slev. tl ! 0(11(3hit:! oj1β<tcling:1UIII( gi nd Slni - ιl.10<1 ! [\1 lit</1."': o" The Y(Cambridge3
I"<At/ernμ/.;.3; Pel's cc/ i"c~Critical
Act.ion i the Dιsign and Prod ctionoj Buildings (London: E. & F. N. Spon31992)3 Ma - s.: IIIIIW. HiLy
H(II'V11)'d Press31988)3pp. 166-172; and Nich as Smith3 Strong
P·4( Hermcr w.i.ιs.P ' I·"it
6. Daniel Sherer3 translator's introduction3 in Manfredo Tafuri3 rηteψ!τting the (9. An . r ) - nl Ittha( Rorty famously deployed in Richard Rorty3
Philosophy and the
R aissance trans. Daniel Sherer (New Haven: eUniversiη Press 2006)3p. xv
2 Mirror oINu/.ur ι (Princeton: Princeton University Press31979).

<aratani3
Architecture as Metaphor p. x- 20. Rorty3
Conμngency Irony and Solidarity p. 91.
\ι/
8. Thusarose the great divide which was to become the trademark of modem liv- 2! Ibid.3p. 28.
ing: one between reason and emotion." Zygmunt Bauman3Alone 7in:Ethiα after
22. Ibid.3 p. xv. Rorty later contrasts this notion of a liberal ironist with two promi-
Ce>ainty (London: Demos320/ 3 P·4·
nent philosophers3Habermas and Foucault3the former of whom is aliberal who
9. See John Gray3 TheWorld Is Round3 New York Review of Books August II320053 is unwilling to be an ironist3and the latter of whom is an ironist who is unwilling
for a cogent critique of Friedman1argument3
s which is set out in Thomas ) Fried- to be a liberal" (ibid.3p. 61).
man3 ηIe World Is Flat (New Yor Farrar3Straus and Giroux32005).
23. Rorty3 TheContingency of Community3 p. I( In the book this reads: Only
10. Niklas Luhmann3Observations on Modernity trans. William Whobrey (Stanford: poets3Nietzsche suspected3can truly appreciate contingency."
Stanford University Press31998)3p. 44.
24. Ibid.3p. 15.This passage3with all its naivety3is not included in the book
II.Nicholas H. Smith3 Strong Hermeneutics: Contingency and Moral Identity (Lon-
25. Rorty3Contingency ony
and Solidarity p. xiv. He says that he is 1 awareof the
don: Routledge31997)3p. "
objection that I am treating democra7c societies as isting for the sake of intellectu-
12. Anthony Giddens3 e Consequences of Modernity (Cambridge: P ity Press3 als3 but his defense is hardly robust enough to get him out of the hole he has dug.
1990)3pp. ( " 1383
3· Myinitial reply to this objection is that there are fairly tight connections between
the freedom of intellectuals and the diminution of cruelty on the other." Footnote in
13. Rasch3Niklas Luhmann1'sModemitι p.l0. Rorty3 TheContingency of Community3 p. 13.
14. Zygmunt Bauman3 Modernity and Ambivalence (Cambridge: Polity Press3 26. Rorty3
Contiηgency Ironμ and Solidarity p. 28.
1991)3p. 98. πle idea of moderni: without illusions is found in Zygmunt Bauman3
Postmodern Ethκs (Oxford: Blad ell31993)3p. " 27 Ibid.3
p. 38. My emphasis.

15. See Giddens3πκ Consequences of Moderniη'3p. 1503for a table summarizing the 28. Bernstein3 Rorty1
) s beral
Utopia3 p. 287.
differences between postmodernity and radicalized modernity.
29. William E. Connolly3 Politics and Ambiguity (Madison: University of Wisconsin
16. Bauman3Moderniη and Ambivalence p. 98. Press31987)3 p. 22. In a later collection of essays Rorty will argue that the stability
and I1ightnessof Western liberal democracy is such that political resistance is not
17. Richard Rorty3 Contingency Irony and Solidarity (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni- necessary. See Richard Rorty3 Philosophy and Social Hope (London: Penguin31999).
versity Press31989). lis book is a reworking of three lectures Rorty gave that were As Hodges and Lachs note3Rorty suggests that there is little or nothing for phi-
published in the London Review of Books in 1986 and which are more accessible in losophers to do after critical detachment has been achieved. Broadly speaking the
style. Richard Rorty3 πle Contingency of Communitι" London R iewof Books institutions of Western civilization are in order as they are3and whatever changes
July 243 1986; Richard Rorty3 πIe Contingency of Language3 London Review of might be necessary do not require the sort of thought that has characteristically
Books April 1731986; Richard Rorty3 TheContingency ofSelfhood3 London Review been called philosophica- 1"Michael
Hodges and John Lachs3Thinking in the Ruins:
of Books May 831986. Wittgenstein and Santayana on Contingency (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press3
18. For a brilliant and concise critique3see Richard J. Bernstein3 R-<> )1sberal 2000)3p. II.
Utopia3 in Bernstein3 πIe NetνConstellation: The Ethical-Political Horizons of Moder- 30. Walter Gropius3Apollo in the Democracy: The Cultural Oblig αtionof the Architect
nityjPostmodemity (Cambridge: Polity Press31991). Much of my argument in this (New Yor McGraw-Hill3 1968)3 p. 8
section is reliant on Bernstein. See also C. J. Misak3ll th Politics Morality: Prag-
matism and Deliberation (London: Routledge31999)3pp. 16-18; Barbara Herrnstein 3( Ibid.3p. 18. Emphasis in ilie origina-

21 / Notesto Pages46-51 Notesto Pages 51-53 211

 :p. Ibid" p. 1 My cilipha is 5 13: " b:u'a rll n~ ·IJI 1)1 13 ζo /:inge ;lcs
. > p. T52.~!nith1csritique of
:nld <CtU.Oof the inevitable contingency tiCjudging value is
objectivist thuil " lil:
33. Hilary Pu n RcaD3
μ{ism Reα
d SO (Cambridge: Carnbddge University Press3
trenchan "and CO! ( i Ilg.
' ci However3 her insistent rejection of any overriding imper-
1983)3p. 18I.
atives means that in " heend her position is dangerously relativis As Steven Connor
34. Agnes Heller3 FromHermeneutics in Social Science toward a Henneneutics of notes3Smith1sevalu live choices seem either entirely determined by the product
Social Science3 eoryand Society 18 (I989): 32 of their contingent circumstances or entirely spontaneous." Steven Connor3πleory
and Cultural Value (Oxford: Blackwell31992)3pp. 28-29.
35. Bauman3Modernity and Ambivalence p. 234.
52. Smith3Contingencies of Valμe p. 156.
36. Zygmunt Bauman3Intimations of Postmodernity (London: Routledge3I992)3
P·134· 53 For example3in Jilrgen Habermas3 Postmetaphysical Thinking: Philosophical
Essays (Cambridge3Mass.: MIT Press3I992)3pp. 126-130.
37. Heller3 FromHermeneutics in Social Science toward a Hermeneutics of Social
Science3 pp. 320-32 54. The charge is set out and then firmly rebuffed by William Rasch. His response
to the charge goes: Ifmodernity is necessarily contingent and there is no escape
38. Bauman3Modernity and Ambivalence p. 245. from the vertigo of ever-shi:ing selεdescriptions3 then the description of this state
of affairs is itself necessarily not contingent. . . . Contingency3then3cannot be
39. As quoted in Roger Connah3How Architecture Got Its Hump (Cam ridge3
Mass.:
merely the contingent condition of moderniη; rather it is the necessaη condition
MIT Press32001)3p. 120.
required for moderniη1scontinued existence." See Rasch3Niklas Luhmann1's Moder-
4 As quoted in Jason Read3 Universal History of Contingency: Deleuze and nitμ PP·23-24·
Guattari on the History of Capitalism3 Borderlands 23 no. 3 (2003).
55. Alberto Melucci3 ePlayi gSelf Person and Meaning in the Planetaη} Society
4 Bruno Latour3We Hαve Never Be Modern trans. Catherine Porte r (New York: (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press3I996)3p. 45.
Harvester Wheatsheaf3I993).
56. Theidentification of freedom A 1 freedomof will1 locates contingency in Ie
42. Ibid.3p. 35. wrong place. Contingency of willwould mean that uncertainty was uncertainly dealt νν
with; it would resort to chance for a decision." John Dewey3 e Quest for Ceπainty .-
4! Ibid.3
p. II9· (1929; London: George lenand Unwin3193 3P·238.
44· Ibid.3p. 54· 57. Donna Haraway3 SituatedKnowledges: The Science Question in Feminism
and the Privilege of Partial Perspective3 in Haraway3 Simians Cyborgs and Women
45· Ibid.3pp. 73-74'
(London: Free Association Books31991).
46. Latour traces three reactions to the crisis of the modern constituti()n not being
feasible in the face of the quasi-objec "(a) the modernizing philosophers from Kant 58. Ibid.3p. 190.
to Habermas who increase the gap between subjects and objects3nature and cuI- 59. Ibid.3p. 196.
ture3until it is incommensurable; (b) the semiotic turn which deals wi 1the middle
ground of quasi-objects3 but which can exist only as an autonomous discourse and 60. Ibid.3P 192.
thus cuts itself off from the world of objects on the one hand and the identity of the
6 Apart from texts already mentioned in the first three chapters3the following
speaking subject on the other; (c) phenomen ogy: but the problem with phenom-
have informed my argumen " Rosi Braidotti3Nomadic Subjects: Erηbodiment and
enologists is that their description of Being is so removed as to be not real3 Being
Sexual Di κncein Contemporary Feminist eory(New Yor "Columbia Universiψ
cannot reside in ordinary beings." Ibid.3pp. 56-67.
Press3I994); Alex Callinicos3 Making History: Agency Structure and Chaηge in Social
47· Ibid.3p. 73· πleory (Cambridge: Polity Press31987); John D. Caputo3Radical Hermeneutics: Rep-
etition Deconstruction and the Hermeneιtic Project (Bloomington: Indiana University
48. Ibid.3p. 46. Press31987); Maη Ann Doane3The Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity Con-V'
tingency the Archive (Cambridge3Mass.: Harvard University Press32002); Roberto
49· Ibid.3p. 40.
Mangabeira Unger3False Necessity: Anti-Necessitarian Social Theory in the Service K
So. Ibid.3p. 7 of Radical Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University PI s31987); Roberto

212 Notest) Pages53-58 Notesto Pages58-61 213

 MnllWlbνhPress
Uugcr
n I98 !! oci
Albrecht
;l·thιOlFu
Wellmerlivcrsily
1i'uth Contingency and Modcrniψ' in the tnm nl μmy tld(
ln do SOII ()wl('dgl~
I'h:d'J011 frJII c figures-
the scrap " (~1τ11: II" Tnd-hone
man---do rn:.lnur to ufl !cJ Ihis transition.
Wellmer Endgames: The Irreconcilable Nature of Modernity (Cambridge Mass.: MIT Ibid. p. 106.
Press 1998); and Gaη Wih πte Contingency ofπteory: Pragmatism Expressivism
and Deconstruction (New Haven: Yale University Press 1994). 10. Richard Pardon Mary Douglas: An Iηtεllectual Biogr.αphy (London: Routledge
1999) p. 144· Thompson slater coauthored book introduced Douglas as pproach
62. Dewey eQuαtfor Ceηainty p. 238. to a wider audience. Michael π mpson Richard Ellis and Aaron Wildavsky Cul-
tural Theory (Boulder: Westview Press 199 The compliment reas med by
Part II Douglas in a IeUer to the Times Literary Supplement anuary20(:I1when she noted
that Thompson sb had achieved the rare scholarly accol e of being classified
Sigfried Giedion Space Time and Architecture (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard Uni- as durable."
versity Press 1946) p. 329. π first quote supreme
a study ... ") is from Frank
oydWright but Giedion does not give the source II. πlompson Rubbish π~eory p. 50.
/ 12. Ibid. p. 48.
4 Time of Waste /
130Ibid. p. 10.
" ~?e
~I~ U~ .(17.5 " tonnes) of all construction waste j. ( esignated
illion 14· Ibid. p. 37· χ
O lyas landfill but a further 28% (20.3 million tonnes) is d~ # edon regis-
tered exempt sites and 13% (9.5 million tonnes) is reused"in cp πuction or engi- 15 πlis is almost unbelievably a quote Vom the "urban design statement" sub-
neering - orks mainly to make up levels. ismeans that i~ - tal65% (55 milli~n mitted by the developers Arsenal Foot nClub in support of their appli on for
tonnes) ofconstmction waste ended up somewhere on th lnd in I999-2111 See planning permission.
/
Symonds Group Construction and Demolition WasteSμL (Swindon: Environment 16. Zygmunt Bauman Wasted Liv Modernity and Its OutcasI (Cambridge: Poliη
Agency 2001). Gu ne fsigures for the percentage fandfill
whi is construction
Press 2004) p. 30. /
waste are at the upper end of estimates. /
17. Delillo Underworld p. 18
2. See John Scanlan On Garbage (London: ~e~ktion Books 2005) p. 22. .'
18. Scanlan On Garbage p( 16.
3. NancyH<t ed. The WIηtings of Robe S:thson(New Yor NewY- rk University I
Press 1979) p. 83. 19. Thesis IX LomW ter Benjamin Onthe Concept of History in CollecκdWrit-
iηgs ed. Howard Eila~;Hl
and Michael Jennings (Cambridge Mass.: Harvard Univer·
4· Le Corbusier en the Cathe sWere White: A Journey to the Cowntry ofπ
siη Press 2 3) .392
People trans. Francis Hyslop (Lptldon: Routledge 1947) p.-25.
20. As Gary ShiHJironotes Smithson isdeeply suspicious of progress and con-
5. Mary Douglas PuJty an " Danger:An Analysis of Concepts of Polluti()n and Taboo scious of indt.yrtrial devastation decay waste and the general tendency toward
(London: Routledge 196 P·36.
6') entropy. Rat rthan attempting to catch up wi l progress he regressively allows
6. Don DeLillo UI p orld
(London: Picador 1998) p. 12 the waste apd the ground to emerge in its wake." Gary Shapiro Earthwards: Robel't
Smithson d Art after Babel (Berkeley: Universiψ of California Press 1995) p. 36.
7. Ivan Klima L ο.~and Garbage trans. Ewald Osers (London: Penguin 1991) p. 6.
21 ψotes from H eWriti s of Robert Smithson pp II3
8. Michael1α pson Rubbish Theo The Creation a Destruction of Value (Oxford:
ord UntversiO Press 1979) p. 7 zz./SCanlan On Garbage PP· 33-34-

9 ubbishto tament transfer is theoretically impossib1e for th Mowing ~3. isis what Rem Koolhaas does in his piece }unkspace a brilliant excoriation rf
reas~ Both. the value and expected life-span of an item in the rubb ish category . the
f world of shopping m Is airports and suburbs that now " er environ-
ur 1

ar~ero. In the transient catego eyare positive and decreaSing. The transfer of I men πle trouble is that we are left smashed at the end of a twelve-page sneer with
/ ' bbis~.to transience would involve a change from zero to a positive quantity which / no room for maneuver. esense of being unable to escape his dystopia is at the
inevitabIy involves an increase and in consequence wou1d exclude tl1ξ item from I same time highly con neing and highly depressing. Rem Koolhaas Junkspace

214 Notes b Pages61-71 Notesto Pages71-75 215