Dear PhD- Design List members:
For those interested in discuss the limits of the scientific
method I sugest an interesting article in The New Yorker …
*THE TRUTH WEARS OFF*
*Is there something wrong with the scientific method?*
by Jonah Lehrer
DECEMBER 13, 2010
Paula
2012/2/10 Don Norman <[log in to unmask]>
> Addendum: Where science fails
>
> 5. The emergence of narrow specialties
>
> As the body of knowledge in science increases, it gets more and more
> difficult to keep up with the entire filed. Moreover, more and more
> specialized knowledge and skills are required to understand, follow,
> and add to the ever-increasing body of knowledge. As a result, science
> becomes more and more specialized.
>
> The filed is divided up into an increasing number of disciplines, each
> some subset of previous disciplines. Periodically there is a cry for
> multi-disciplinary research, and people across disciplines get
> together and discover that the combination of their fields yields new
> insights and advances in understanding. This attracts more people to
> the domain, more funding for research, and more students eager to
> explore the new area. As a result, this new interdisciplinary field
> becomes codified as a discipline. In a few decades, it will be as
> established as any of the older disciplines, and the younger workers
> will start crying out for the need for multi-disciplinary research.
>
> This disease actually impacts much of the university, not just
> science. The push toward ultra-specialization is aided by the
> promotion polices of universities that increasingly want evidence that
> the faculty are the top workers in the field. This is measured through
> publication in peer-reviewed venues and by letters from other
> international authorities. But each authority only knows the workers
> in their own sub discipline. The person who publishes in several
> disciplines is apt to get lost, for each judge states that they barely
> know the person, or that there have been only a few publications, for
> they are unaware of all the work done in disciplines they themselves
> do not follow.
>
> Design is one of the few exceptions to this rule. Design is a
> practice, and practices must cut across disciplines, using the
> knowledge, methods, and findings of multiple disciplines in order to
> create valuable and useful artifacts. Great designers are
> generalists, knowing a little about many different topics.
>
> The world needs more generalists. Unfortunately, the world of the
> university does not know how to evaluate generalists. Each evaluator
> speaks of how little the generalist knows in their own field of
> specialization, a point that is true. But the generalist who knows a
> little bit about many topics has just as much valuable knowledge and
> understanding as the specialist who knows a lot about a tiny slice of
> knowledge.
>
> Alas, the formal requirements of university assessment do not know how
> to take generalists into account.
>
>
> Don Norman
>
|