In order to create living structure, we must please ourselves.

The central thesis of the chapter: pleasing yourself is the necessary and sufficient prescription for creating living structure.

Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count

Hypotheses (1)

hypothesis

If we can only learn how to please ourselves, that prescription by itself will always create living structure.
extends
The conditional claim that true self-pleasing is sufficient for generating living structure in all cases.

Concepts (2)

concept

living structure
associated_with
A built or natural form that possesses life, arising from morphogenetic adaptation, as opposed to blueprint designs.
Pleasing Yourself
associated_with
The core prescription of the chapter: making what truly pleases you at the deepest level, which Alexander argues is the key to creating all living structure and the path to the I.

Claims (3)

claim

Pleasing yourself and doing what is right are one and the same.
extends
The most radical claim of the chapter: the subjective and the ethical are identical at the deepest level.
What truly pleases us is always living structure.
extends
The equivalence claim that true pleasure and living structure are the same thing; the word 'truly' contains the whole space of the four books.
We will never be able to contribute to the world's horrible buildings if we make things that we like.
extends
A strong corollary: true liking is incompatible with creating ugly, lifeless buildings.

Chapters (1)

chapter

CHAPTER TEN: Pleasing Yourself
introduces
The culminating chapter of Vol 4 arguing that the core prescription for creating living structure is to truly please yourself, and that this is identical to reaching the I and doing what is right.

Related by similarity (8)

cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edge

Entities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.

The creation of living structure cannot be done in any other way.claim0.876
Living structure might even be defined as 'that which pleases us'—that which truly pleases us.claim0.867
A proposed operational definition of living structure in terms of genuine pleasure.
The existence of living structure, as defined in The Nature of Order, requires modifications in our physical picture of the world, not only in the picture we have of architecture.claim0.849
The closing claim of the chapter's mid-book appendix, asserting that the theory of centers has implications for physics.
At each step, doing the simplest thing that can be done to intensify existing centers will produce living structure.hypothesis0.846
Operational hypothesis equating simplicity of step with emergence of life.
Such a process will not—in general—create living structure.claim0.842
Uniqueness is a necessary aspect of living structure.claim0.840
Strong claim that living structure cannot exist without every part being unique.
What pleasing yourself truly IS, is the process in which we create living structure.claim0.838
The culminating identity claim: the act of true self-pleasing and the creation of living structure are one and the same process.
In order to achieve living structure, at a certain stage, it is necessary to seize hold of the building design and force it into an almost brutal, simple, massive geometric mold.claim0.838
The chapter's central thesis: brutal geometric imposition is a necessary phase in achieving living structure