Hi Ken,
How are you going? You are missing the storms here in Western Australia -
better than fireworks!
I'm asking the questions about the passion discourse for two reasons that
seem to make good sense in this phd-design context:
1. How does it help build a body of useful theory about design activity that
is coherent with the best knowledge across all related disciplines from the
sciences, humanities, engineering, arts, bsuiness and social sciences.
2. How will it stand up in a PhD thesis being critically examined by a
philosophically careful examiner.
I'm not suggesting that empirical evidence is needed - that's a different
issue (see my post to Chris). My questions are about concepts, theory and
accurate reasoning.
I'm specifically asking for greater clarity about the detaisl of the
reasoning. When 'passion' is used to describe part of the mix of what are
'human qualities of people that design', then its reasonable to ask how how
that links to other theory (such as that of aesthetics and ethics - calling
them arete if novelty is needed) that relates to practical outcomes.
Off to buy croissants from Abhi's wonderful bakery 60km away - is that
passion or just good sense cos they're the best croissants?
All the best,
Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ken
Friedman
Sent: Sunday, 1 March 2009 7:49 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Passion
Hi, Terry,
The past half-dozen posts or so get to a few issues worth considering. For
many kinds of inquiry, we require empirical evidence. To consider some of
the issues here, we do not -- or at least not for the purposes of this
conversation.
In asking how, specifically, a better understanding of passion --
appropriate passion, as I see it -- or flow states lead to better design
outcomes, you're asking for more than we need to provide here. This is not a
specific conversation on "the detail of how seeing design in terms of
'passion' will make design more useful, profitable, faster to market, reduce
failures and all the other things that design research helps with." It is
not a conversation on seeing _design_ in terms of passion, because passion,
commitment, and flow are not qualities of designed artifacts nor even of the
design process qua design, but human qualities of people that design.
The inquiry interests me because of my interest in appropriate passion and
arete -- excellence.
It is difficult to get a philosophical or psychological answer if you ask an
engineering question. To put it another way, if you'll inquire in terms of
arete and link the issues that interest you to the qualities of the term, it
would be possible to answer the questions you might ask.
For now, I'm quite content with the answers that Klaus, Chris, and Chuck
have offered.
I'm in Wellington, New Zealand, on a bright, sunny Sunday morning with high
winds. When I was out walking by the harbor a while back, I head a voice
whispering something in the wind. I may be mistaken, but it sounded awfully
much like someone saying, "Every time I see Chris Rust on a bicycle, I no
longer despair for the future of design research."
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS
Professor
Dean
Swinburne Design
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia
Telephone +61 3 9214 6755
www.swinburne.edu.au/design
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