Chuck, Harold et al,
re: the disjunction between thought and its application....To me design
thinking occurs in humans, is represented through various media, and applied
to specific situations in ways appropriate to both the thoughts and the
situations they are applied to. All should be accommodated in any theory or
philosophy worthy of design and should be researched in ways that seek
knowledge of their connectivity. It seems to me that treating them
separately will only delay adequate development and cause more
misunderstandings in the long run.
&
His challenge was to ask philosophers of science to go beyond what
"is" (description and explanation) to deontic questions of what
"ought" to be asked in relationship to scientific inquiry. For him, a
philosophy of science is inadequate when limited to questions of
"is". I agree with his appreciation of what a philosophy of science
ought to be.
________________________________________________________________________
I agree that two major criteria (certainly not the only) for good design
theory are 1. a philosophical strategy for dealing with the connecting arc
of thought and its physical expression in designing, and 2. a attempt to
show how designing confronts, perhaps even redefines, the is-ought problem.
Susan K. Langer attempted the former in her three-volume essay, Mind: An
Essay on Human Feeling with discusses her theory of "acts" and in her
earlier book, Feeling and Form. I prefer what I call a 21st Century valuing
approach, which comes from other sources.
Ursula K. La Guin, a Pacific Northwest writer of some renown, writing about
the is-ought split in relation to the integrative role of narrative in
literary theory says, "Surely the primary, survival-effective uses of
language involve stating alternatives and hypotheses. We don't, and never
did, go around making statements of fact to other people, or in our internal
discourse with ourselves..."
Regards to all,
Jerry
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Jerry Diethelm
Architect - Landscape Architect
Planning & Urban Design Consultant
Prof. Emeritus of Landscape Architecture
and Public Service € University of Oregon
2652 Agate St., Eugene, OR 97403
€ e-mail: [log in to unmask]
€ web: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~diethelm
€ 541-686-0585 home/work 541-346-1441 UO
€ 541-206-2947 work/cell
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