Thanks Ken,

This is an example of scholarly discourse on a PH.D. list. I wish all our 
talk goes this way. Well, I don't mean that everybody should contribute to 
the list with such comprehensive posts, but even short messages can be 
scholarly when they communicate scholarly ideas and considerations.

Best Regards,

Lubomir

At 04:14 PM 9/18/2004 +0200, Ken Friedman wrote:
>Dear Peter,
>
>The thread on integration and overcoming dualism has been genuinely 
>interesting. Rather than respond to all the issues, I respond want to 
>comment on one specific theme.
>
>You wrote, "As for scientific analysis - I've not heard of an analysis 
>(reductionist or otherwise) which has provided us with a formula, 
>methodological framework or recipe (rice or potatoes?) for human creativity."
>
>This one sentence seems to raise three issues, each different one from the 
>next. I want to respond to these issues-and some of the questions they 
>involve - to demonstrate that the missing information is available.
>
>Issue 1 asks whether any kind of scientific analysis can yield a formula 
>for human creativity. It would be difficult to find such a formula.
>
>Issue 2 asks whether there exists a methodological framework for human 
>creativity. In this sense, the term "methodological framework" seems to 
>have two possible meanings.
>
>One meaning of the term "methodological framework" is a framework for the 
>comparative analysis of research methods that shed useful light on human 
>creativity. This response will point to such a methodological framework. 
>If you follow the references, you can decide for yourself if the methods 
>are useful.
>
>The other meaning of the term "methodological framework" is a collection 
>of methods to foster human creativity. These methods exist. Here, too, I 
>will provide sources.
>
>Issue 3 involves recipes for human creativity. The word "recipe" also has 
>two meanings.
>
>One kind of "recipe" involves the precise formulas we use to compound 
>chemical or pharmaceutical prescription. There are no such recipes for 
>human creativity.
>
>The other kind of "recipe" is the kind we use in cooking or practicing a 
>professional art. There are many such recipes. We describe them in many 
>kinds of heuristics, rules of thumb, processes, and procedures that assist 
>human creativity.
>
>Scientific analysis rarely yields explicit formulas at the beginning of 
>research into a field. Challenging or difficult problems involving complex 
>issues and processes may never yield precise formulas. This is 
>particularly the case for scientific research programs that have improved 
>human performance as goals.
>
>While general analysis of creativity goes back a century or so, 
>programmatic scientific analysis of creativity is goes back only about 
>fifty years. While different forms of research may one day yield formulas 
>on limited sub-topics in creativity, that day is far in the future. Such 
>formulas may never be possible. We are so far from knowing whether or how 
>such formulas might function that it is impossible to make a clear statement.
>
>Robert J. Sternberg's (1999) Handbook of Creativity offers a comprehensive 
>overview of research in the field of human creativity to this time. It 
>examines and discusses different kinds of work on creativity, including 
>research directly applicable to human creativity in professional practice.
>
>The twenty-two chapters in this book offer an extensive methodological 
>framework for human creativity in both senses of the term. It describes 
>research on human creativity and it describes collections of methods and 
>approaches to supporting and enhancing human creativity.
>
>Many research streams in creativity are still developing analytical or 
>descriptive understanding of processes. Other research streams can 
>contribute to the improved practice of design.
>
>Several scholars have pursued streams of creativity research that can be 
>applied directly to improved design practice. Some authors ask how to 
>improve professional practice. Others examine heuristics and problem 
>solving. Still others ask how individual and social creativity shapes the 
>framework within which individuals and organizations innovate. For many, 
>this includes asking how different aspects of what they label creativity 
>can help in the design process.
>
>Nadler (1981), Nadler and Hibino (1994), and Nadler and Hibino with 
>Farrell (1995) address creative problem solving in engineering and design. 
>Their approach to creativity research involves useful working methods for 
>the practicing designer or engineer.
>
>Research into organizational learning and problem solving fits this 
>stream. Organizational learning emphasizes social creativity, individual 
>and group problem solving, organizational innovation, and heuristics. Much 
>of this work focuses on developing and using of skills in the context of 
>professional practice. This work applies to the development of skill and 
>judgment in many professions. These include the design professions among 
>them, and it includes Donald Schon's work on reflective practice.
>
>Some of the useful authors include Argyris (1991, 1992), Argyris and Schon 
>(1974, 1978. 1996), Schon (1983, 1987), Senge (1990, 1996, 1999), Senge, 
>Roberts, Ross, Smith, and Kleiner (1994), Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, 
>Roth, and Smith (1999).
>
>Robert Sternberg's (1994) work on creativity also covers issues in 
>production and professional practice.
>
>Other research streams are more diffuse. They do not necessarily apply to 
>design, but to the conditions under which human beings become better 
>suited to the application of wise judgment.
>
>Abraham Maslow's (1962, 1987, 1998) fits this category. So does much of 
>Gregory Bateson's work. Mary Catherine Bateson's (1972) Our Own Metaphor 
>is particularly interesting because the inquiry applies to wise judgment 
>situated in professional practice.
>
>One specific stream of creativity research focuses on the professions and 
>on higher education. This stream of research explicitly addresses the 
>issue of how creativity research applies to the professional practice of 
>design.
>
>One key book is Finke, Warde, and Smith (1992). They examine cognitive 
>creativity in terms of theory, recent research, and applications.
>
>Terry Love often notes that new knowledge on how human brains operate is a 
>promising source of ways to understand the design process. Finke, Warde, 
>and Smith (1992) summarize much of the work done up to the early 1990s, 
>and their substantial reference list gives access to applicable research. 
>This book demonstrates the theoretical links and empirical consequences of 
>many of these issues.
>
>Most of the research in the book is applicable to understanding and 
>improving design practice. Moreover, Finke, Warde, and Smith (1992) cover 
>three specific design fields - product development, human-computer 
>interaction, and architecture - as well as such fields as education and 
>psychotherapy.
>
>One additional stream of creativity research focuses on what Dick Buchanan 
>and Susan Hagan have labeled the "systematic arts of invention." This 
>stream focuses on the classical art of rhetoric and contemporary work in 
>heuristics.
>
>Both of these arts apply directly to improving design practice and to 
>production.
>
>Two good examples of the work in heuristics are Polya's (1990 [1945]) work 
>on problem solving in mathematics and the Groner, Groner, and Bischof 
>(1983) book on heuristics. We can map many of Polya's techniques from 
>mathematical problem solving onto generalized heuristics for effective use 
>in design practice. Much more has been done in this field.
>
>Research into heuristics and decision-making is linked to applied human 
>creativity in important ways. Basic research in psychology and behavioral 
>science may be too remote for some tastes, but research by such scientists 
>as Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman (2002) and the late Amos Tversky can be 
>applied to this issue.
>
>Many high-level problem-solving skills and strategic planning skills also 
>function for direct professional production. Because these processes help 
>to develop creativity, they constitute an example of the systematic arts 
>of invention to which Dick and Susan often refer. One problem-solving 
>method well known to designers (Skoe 1992, 1994) is an example of this. 
>Two more examples of well-known methods for idea generation and creativity 
>are TRIZ and value engineering. (Despite its name, value engineering is 
>not an engineering heuristic, but an idea generation and creativity 
>development heuristic.)
>
>There are many research streams in the area of creativity research. These 
>examples provide evidence of rich methodological frameworks and extensive 
>recipes for human creativity.
>
>I have not done serious research on creativity since the 1970s, but we 
>have two experts on the list that may have something to add. These are 
>David Durling and Chris Heape. I would welcome their comments on current 
>issues I have probably missed.
>
>IMHO, overcoming dualism and adopting integrative frameworks means that we 
>must be willing to work with multiple approaches to research and practice. 
>Rejecting scientific inquiry on an a priori basis is also a form of dualism.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Ken
>
>
>
>
>
>References
>
>Argyris, Chris. 1991. "Teaching Smart People How to Learn." Harvard 
>Business Review, May- June: 99-109.
>
>Argyris, Chris. 1992. On Organizational Learning. Oxford: TJ Press.
>
>Argyris, Chris, and Donald A. Schon. 1974. Theory in practice: increasing 
>professional effectiveness (1st ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
>
>Argyris, Chris, and Donald A. Schon. 1978. Organizational learning: a 
>theory of action perspective. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley 
>Publishing Company.
>
>Argyris, Chris, and Donald A. Schon. 1996. Organizational learning II. 
>Theory, method, and Practice. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley 
>Publishing Company.
>
>Bateson, Mary Catherine. 1972. Our own metaphor. A personal account of a 
>conference on the effects of conscious purpose on human adaptation. New 
>York: Knopf.
>
>Finke, Ronald A., Thomas B. Ward, and Steven M. Smith. 1992. Creative 
>Cognition. Theory, Research, and Applications. Cambridge, Massachusetts: 
>The MIT Press.
>
>Groner, Rudolf, Marina Groner, and Walter Bischof, editors. 1983. Methods 
>of Heuristics. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
>
>Kahneman, Daniel. 2002. Maps of Bounded Rationality: A Perspective on 
>Intuitive Judgment. Nobel Prize Lecture, December 8, 2002. URL: 
>http://nobelprize.org/economics/laureates/2002/kahneman-lecture.html 
>Accessed 2002 December 15.
>
>Maslow, Abraham H., with Deborah C. Stephens and Gary Heil. 1998.  Maslow 
>on Management. New York: John C. Wiley and Sons, Inc.
>
>Maslow, Abraham H. 1987. Motivation and Personality. Third Edition. 
>Revised by Robert Frager, James Fadiman, Cynthia McReynolds, and Ruth Cox. 
>New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
>
>Maslow, Abraham H. 1962. Toward a Psychology of Being. Princeton, New 
>Jersey: D. Van Nostrand Company.
>Nadler, Gerald. 1981. The Planning and Design Approach. New York: John 
>Wiley and Sons.
>
>Nadler, Gerald, and Shozo Hibino. 1994. Breakthrough Thinking. The Seven 
>Principles of Creative problem Solving. Revised Second Edition. Rocklin, 
>California: Prima Publishing.
>
>Nadler, Gerald, and Shozo Hibino with John Farrell. 1995. Creative 
>Solution Finding. The Triumph of Full-Spectrum Creativity over 
>Conventional Thinking. Rocklin, California: Prima Publishing.
>
>Polya, G. 1990 [1945]. How to Solve It. A New Aspect of Mathematical 
>Method. London: Penguin Books.
>
>Schon, Donald A. 1983. The Reflective Practitioner. New York: Basic Books Inc.
>
>Schon, Donald A. 1987. Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San 
>Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publications.
>
>Senge, Peter M. 1990. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the 
>Learning Organization. London: Century Business.
>
>Senge, Peter M. 1996. "Leading learning organizations." Training and 
>development. 50, 12: 36-37.
>
>Senge, Peter. 1999. Creative Tension. Executive Excellence, 16, 1: 12-13.
>
>Senge, Peter, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, and Art 
>Kleiner. 1994.  The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. London: Nicholas Brealey 
>Publishing.
>
>Senge, Peter, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Richard Ross, George Roth, 
>and Bryan Smith. 1999. The Dance of Change. The Challenges of Sustaining 
>Momentum in Learning Organizations. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
>
>Skoe, Anders. 1992. Fra problem til løsning. Oslo, Norway: TI-forlaget.
>
>Skoe, Anders. 1994. Creating Customer Care. Neuilly sur Seine, France: 
>SITA - Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautique.
>
>Sternberg, Robert J., editor. 1994. Thinking and Problem Solving. San 
>Diego: Academic Press.
>
>Sternberg, Robert J., editor. 1999. Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge: 
>Cambridge University Press.
>
>
>--
>
>Professor Ken Friedman
>Department of Leadership and Organization
>Norwegian School of Management
>
>Design Research Center
>Denmark's Design School
>
>+47  67.55.73.23   Tlf NSM
>+47 33.40.10.95    Tlf Privat
>
>email: [log in to unmask]