Hi Terry
I assume you're referring to the much quoted piece of graffiti " a woman
needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"
Alun
On 25/1/08 3:08 AM, "Terence Love" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Jean,
>
> Thanks for some clear air.
>
> One of the primary skills of designers is to be able to think of superficial
> (or 'creative') ways of connecting anything to anything else whist avoiding
> the hard work of describing the connection in epistemologically complete
> detail. For example, think of a connection between a fish and a bicycle.
>
> Watching myself and others I feel this designerly skill is however, fairly
> unhelpful in PhD study involving philosophy and research. Philosophy and
> research require the opposite skill of being incredibly precise about the
> exact details of connections and relationships because it is the activity
> that differentiates one position and chunk of knowledge from another.
>
> I find the designerly approach to philosophical thinking can easily lead to
> absolute relativism and subjectivism and is limited in its usefulness as
> yourself, David and others have inferred.
>
> When discourse involves design and philosophy, I've found it useful to look
> at philosophical 'isms' - the different positions that underpin how people
> talk about things.
>
> The 'Book of isms' seems to have disappeared from the web but instead there
> is now the incredibly useful
> 'Glossary_of_philosophical_isms' at
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_philosophical_isms
>
> Recent debates on PhD-design have demonstrated many different and
> contradictory 'ism' positions - sometimes in the same posting!
>
> Some clarity by authors of the exact 'ism' they are using would be helpful
> to other readers.
>
> For PhD students dealing with basic (though complex) issues in philosophy
> relating to design activity, the following sources also seem to be useful
> (at least to avoid naive mistakes):
>
> http://www.iep.utm.edu/
> http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html
> http://www.ditext.com/encyc/frame.html
> http://www.iscid.org/encyclopedia/
> http://www.epistemelinks.com/Main/MainEncy.aspx
> http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Terry
>
> ---
> Dr Terence Love
> Curtin University
> Lancaster University
> IADE/UNIDCOM
> [log in to unmask]
> ---
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