Fil and all,
Just another "inter"-view.
Like you, I work with many others in the ecotones of our varying interests,
capacities, experience and talents, helping to resolve complex design
situations that require an ecology of cooperation, collaboration and good
management. And so too, I expect, do most designers today. Designing, like
doing science is a great intentional and integrative culture-building
process.
It does draw (as noted widely here) from less ecologically organized
knowledge structures, but is an increasingly effective force for
institutional and disciplinary hybridization and evolution, especially as we
continue to emphasize and build acceptance for such powerful general
descriptions of the process as Simon's transforming existing situations into
the preferred.
The power is in the general process, it's improvement, and especially in an
increased awareness of the integrating power of the process.
Warm wishes,
Jerry
On 8/13/07 2:48 AM, "Filippo A Salustri" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Ken, Klaus, et al,
>
> Ken wrote:
>> Well, as I see it I'm not using the word my own way. I'm using it as
>> most people seem to do. The issue is not how English speakers
>> interpret the word "inter" -- most English speakers are not
>> etymologists. The issue is that _you_ based your interpretation of
>> the word interdisciplinary partly on your understanding of the word
>> "inter." I wanted to clarify that the word has other meanings than
>> those you described.
>
> Just a thought. Might not the /use/ of the word 'inter' be different in
> 'interdisciplinary' than in, say, 'interstellar'? That is, while
> 'inter' may have a variety of connotations, mightn't 'interdisciplinary'
> only be taking advantage of one of them?
>
> Consider the word 'between' in the 2 phrases 'between the lines' and
> 'between the sheets'. To me, the former suggests a need to understand
> all the lines between which one is /as a whole/, in order to get the
> intended meaning, whereas the latter is rather literal. And 'between'
> therefore has /both/ connotations.
>
> All I'm saying is that maybe discussing 'inter' isn't really going to
> help with understanding 'interdisciplinary'.
>
> Cheers.
> Fil
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Jerry Diethelm
Architect - Landscape Architect
Planning & Urban Design Consultant
Prof. Emeritus of Landscape Architecture
and Community Service € University of Oregon
2652 Agate St., Eugene, OR 97403
€ e-mail: [log in to unmask]
€ web: http://www.uoregon.edu/~diethelm
€ 541-686-0585 home/work 541-346-1441 UO
€ 541-206-2947 work/cell
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