Our reasons for caring for our cultural heritage fall into four categories: 1) negative reasons based on the situation where there is no conservation of the cultural heritage; 2) paradigmatic reasons involving specific groups in the population with a strong interest in preserving or strengthening their own identity; 3) metaphorical reasons relying on the use of parallels to describe what cannot be expressed in simple terms; and 4) utilitarian reasons dependent on economic or symbolic values of buildings. Advocates reviving the Theory and Philosophy Committee of ICOMOS to develop a much-needed ideological basis for architectural conservation.