i CHARLESTON CONTRADICTIONS: A CASE STUDY OF ...

elativistic standpoint, the push to preserve the building is led largely by architects and
preservationists—in other words, people who have been trained specifically to analyze
and interpret the significance of buildings. While many people are indifferent or even
outright hostile to the building, the Orange County Government Center is a candidate for
preservation because it is important and significant to a relatively small number of people
who feel that their perspective on the situation is the correct one.
Despite these examples of positivism and relativism, it is still possible to utilize
the philosophies and methods that Sayer and Fay have written about in order to
distinguish a more accurate, robust, and truthful interpretation of the cultural materials
that make up the study of historic preservation and architecture. What this would avoid is
the two extremes of positivism and relativism—where the significance of buildings is
only evaluated based on scientific criteria, such as age, or where nearly every building
ever built is classified as “historic” simply because we are unable to use independent
criteria to distinguish between the ordinary and the extraordinary. While elements of both
philosophies may ultimately be useful in evaluating the significance of historic buildings,
by themselves they cannot achieve an accurate interpretation. The hermeneutics, or
interpretation and understanding of what buildings are significant and worth preserving,
must rely on a solid philosophical base in order to be sound.
While both Fay and Sayer advocate for a middle ground between positivism and
relativism, constructing a philosophy that enables the best interpretation of cultural
materials while avoiding the traps of the other philosophies requires a more complete
explanation of theory. The Critical Realism that Sayer advocates and the multicultural
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