Dear Jonas, Kari-Hans and others
This is a thinking-aloud post and I hope that I will get your constructive feedback.
1
Jonas: when I read your ideas on 'design thinking' (dated Nov 22, 2001), the idea of
'practical philosophy' came to my mind. A net-pal once pointed out to me that the
ancient Greek philosophers didn't just write about philosophy but also practiced it.
Is a 'practical philosophy' the same as 'philosophical practice'? Is it what design
practice can potentially become? wait...wait... wait, I am not seeing 'philosophy' as a
field of inquiry, but 'philosophy' as a way, a principle, a world view, a sense of being.
... this is how I imagine or wish myself becoming ... a Doctor of Philosophy in
Design... someone who will have a disciplined (disciplined as informed, critical,
rigourous, and sincere) set of values and beliefs which govern her actions (in teaching,
research or professional design) that in turn realize values and beliefs. These actions
will be 'design' (as a philosophy) actions?
2
Kari-Hans: is what I wrote above in any way close to the idea behind what you wrote
on Nov 3, 2001
"Design can, better than other fields, deal with the devaluation of
categories, because of its nature as an integrative discipline.
Designers often must deal with and take responsibility of wholes
which require expertise from various fields, without the possibility
to specialize themselves with those areas. They need to study and to
talk with and employ other specialists, decide how deeply get
involved, and finally make judgements as to how to balance various
concerns, and carry the responsibility for the results, without a
possibility to find proof or certainty. Thus design is often
multidisciplinary, research oriented, innovative, pragmatic and
realistic - all at the same time - by nature".
to me, what you described as 'designerly potentials' are not the cognitive functioning
or the abilities of designers, or design methods, or design practice but rather the
ESSENCES that can be abstracted from all of these. In other words, you are not saying that
doctoral education in design should imitate/copy designers' practice, but rather it
should build on its (explicit or yet to be made explicit) essences. Am I reading you correctly?
Best Regards
Rosan
Rosan Chow
Graduate Student
College of Design
North Carolina State University
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