Dear Terry,
On Polymaths and Design
One might presume that all PhDs required candidates to be polymaths of some kind - the general focus of Design would underline this characteristic of many ways of knowing, many forms of knowlledge as a requirement of new knowledge/significant contribution/originality.
The simple answer is that professional doctorates might be satisfied by a mono-math? There is a clear connection with mono-mania for all doctorates - the question is whether the mono was prior to or subsequent to the arriving at a thesis.
So much of Design research is typified by poly questions being "solved" by mono approaches. This style is aggrivated by the single author status of a PhD. It is compounded by examinations that are made by mono criteria - often associated with amount of effort and degree of difficulty rather than originality and significance of contribution being the proofs of new knowledge.
If ya don't eat ya meat ya can't have ya pudding.
keith russell
oz newcastle
snip from Terry Love>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I'm interested in the thoughts of other PhD supervisors on this issue. *Many problems of design research can only be addressed though a complex of high level analyses simultaneously undertaken across the knowledge areas of multiple, *often radically different, disciplines. *Is it reasonable to expect some PhD candidates to have the skills of a polymath ? What are the implications for the design research field *if most PhD candidates are capable only of operating from a single disciplinary perspective? - Terry Love
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