Stone

Based on his writing, it is clear that Le Corbusier felt that it was his duty as an architect to meditate on the issues of the modern world and implement solutions in order to improve society, as can be seen in his plan for the Radiant City (La Ville Radieuse).

Let us imagine for an instant that quite suddenly, as a result of some sudden acceleration in social progress, the man of today has five extra hours of freedom at this disposal out of the eight or ten previously allotted to his work. We should be faced with social disaster, for no preparations have as yet been made to absorb such a vast flood of latent energies. [...]We must decide what the occupations are going to be - communal tasks and individual duties that will fill the space between two sleeps... Our task is to put man back on his feet, to make sure that his feet are firmly on the earth, his lungs full of air, his spirit bent upon constructive communal efforts and also animated by the joys to be derived from useful personal activities.

In his plan for the Radiant City, Le Corbusier instills strict boundaries for each function in society and in life. A hierarchy is put into place with the government buildings and business centers at the top and the factories and heavy industry at the bottom. The architectural hierarchies of the Radiant City mirrored the class hierarchies of the people who were to live there. There were those who labored and those who were "wellenough endowed to have the ability and the duty to think".89 Not only does this hierarchy imply who is in charge, but illustrates that Le Corbusier thought that the decisions made for society were to be made by the philosophers, the elite, and undoubtedly, himself.