Hi Don and others
I didn't realize my blackberry thumbing was so bad that Wittgenstein got
turned into wittenartin. When you have a broaldy social science
background you assume that referencing Wittgenstein and Bourdieu is like
being asked for a reference to Santa Claus (at least in the Western
world from a recent historical point). Given my lack of access to
Encyclopedia B, let me let Wikipedia do the talking
Bourdieu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bourdieu
Wittgenstein
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein
Neopragmatism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopragmatism
But to flesh this out, one of Bourdieu's contributions to the social
sciences and sociology in particular was to say don't let the terms of
reference be defined for you by someone else and just take them up into
your discussion without asking what they mean - typically lots of things
to lots of people in lots of different circumstances. Wittgenstein,
among other things, said later in life think about the use of language
in specific circumstances like a language game, i.e. a specific practice
in which language plays a role - understanding the language game is the
first step to seeing what is and isn't the meaning of some term in use
(I'm really abbreviating here). More broadly, he said think of the
multiple language games we are all involved in as playing a part inf
forms of life - characteristic ways of living, i.e. being an engineer,
psychologist ... So that a professional PhD list is a language game for
a group of (admittedly diverse) people engaged in a broader form of life
- designing, design research ... Neo-pragmatists and Richard Rorty in
particular like to say that if we take a Deweyan, Jamesian focus on how
decisions about life, education, politics society should be made on the
utility and general democratic and human value of ideas AND we don't see
(empiricist) science as offering the only valuable paradigm for working
things out (but social sciences, literature, anthropology may
contribute) - then we might make better decisions and a better society
etc. Again potted summary. Maybe this helps
Dr Gavin Melles
Head, Industrial & Interior Design
Swinburne University of Technology
Office: +613 92146851
Mobile: +61 (0)414374368
Skype: gavin.melles
>>> Don Norman <[log in to unmask]> 13/04/09 3:11 AM >>>
May I ask a stupid question?
I'm just a dumb, uneducated engineer turned psychologist turned design
researcher. So I get lost in a lot of these discussions. Design is a
fascinating field because we all come from such rich, diverse
backgrounds.
But that means that commonplace concepts and people known by some are
completely unknown and mysterious to others. Especially to me.
In reply to my last posting I was told that my comments were "
characteristic of bourdieu's work. As witthenartin and neopragmatists
have
been telling us for some time ... :"
I was also told about "a reflexive system such as that represented by a
Beerian VSM (which allows it to be product or service at any time)."
So here is the stupid question.
Who or what is bourdieu, witthenartin, neopragmatists, Beerian, VSM ?
What
is a "reflexive system"?
I ask stupid questions to the list because in my experience, whenever I
ask
a stupid question, whether in a talk discussion period or in an internet
discussion group, other people privately come up to me and thank me
because
they had the same question but were ashamed to admit it. I am not
ashamed to
admit my ignorance. That's the only way to become educated.
Request: When using jargon or names of people, assume that some us are
ignorant, so can you explain for us? (Perhaps in a footnote or
afterward)
Comment: I'm on the internet -- why didn’t I just look up those terms?
Answer: I tried and either failed to find them or failed to understand
the
ones I did find. Wikipedia responds to some of those items, but not all
of
them. But the new, democratized, "never say anything cohesive because
you
have to give a referencof these an exercise in even more futility. I'm a Encylopaedia
Britannica
(EB) person myself, except that EB is hopelessly out of date. EB
believes in
personal opinions, when those are opinions of experts, and also in
cohesive,
edited writing. Now if we could only combine the coverage and timeliness
of
Wikipedia with the depth, authority, and clarity of writing of EB.
Full disclosure: Although I am a fan of what Wikipedia is trying to do,
you
might not wish to trust my statement about Wikipedia because I'm on the
EB
Editorial Board Advisory Committee (where I ask a lot of stupid
questions --
which is why they keep inviting me back). EB is now trying to add
wiki-like
components to its articles to keep them more current and to take
advantage
of the wisdom in the world. But still filtered through an editor to
maintain
consistency and authority,.
Don
Don Norman
Nielsen Norman Group
Breed Professor of Design, Northwestern University
Visiting Distinguished Professor. KAIST, Daejeon, Korea
[log in to unmask]
www.jnd.org/
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