Arjun
I think you are spot on here. Design, seems to me to be a family resemblance concept. If there is an implicit nominalism in the word "design", if there is possibly no essential, common denominator or core in design understood generally and instantiated in all that we can call "design", how then can we begin to talk about it, to define it, to offer a definition that is meaningful? The strategy is signaled somewhat by Don, I believe, or I would argue. He's not so much abandoning the task to define design but rather abandoning the task to define design in that classical way, to find a common denominator, which will end up with a general meaning so loose it would be useless. Rather he seems to me after what is called a central case, or a focal meaning: a meaning that is identified, based on a normative criteria of excellence and importance or significance, and thus chosen, to be centrally important (so that other "designs" or "designing" whilst equally entitled to that term, as set as nearer the peripheral, the less significant sense). And thus true enough he zooms in on value, because presumably, Don values (or thinks important and significant) whatever it is he means by "value". He's saying, there are so many things that can be called "design", but whilst all can be sensibly called design, which amongst these are the best or most significant senses: well, precisely those designs that arrive at the valuable, or add value. This is the "design" that matters. And if we are offering a definition, than the purpose of such defining is precisely to locate that significant meaning under that word-sign "design", and point attention to it, set it at the centre, and comparing this central case will also allow us immediately to see what's at the periphery, and so deserves criticism, even if still design.
Jude
I'm not sure which of these options are accurate, or if there is another option - or another thirty options - that I am missing. Maybe "design" is equivalent to "game" in Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, and Don is right in abandoning definition in favor of more important focuses on value and specific practices. Or maybe Don's jump to value and "X design" delineation is simply a fallacy of relative privation. Or it could be that the misology that seems to be prominent amongst certain designers and design researchers is really the only intelligible approach (though I doubt it).
I'm really not sure, and I don't think I can figure out the answer on my own. This is why I am posting here now, so I would appreciate feedback from you, Don, and from all the other extraordinary members of this listserv.
Thanks,
-Arjun
References:
Herbert A. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, 1969 - http://books.google.com/books?id=k5Sr0nFw7psC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA111#v=onepage&q&f=false
Strategic Design, as defined by Helsinki Design Lab (HDL): http://www.helsinkidesignlab.org/pages/what-is-strategic-design -- it is also worth downloading (for free) or purchasing HDL's Bryan Boyer et al's Recipes for Systemic Change here: http://www.helsinkidesignlab.org/pages/studio-book
Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, 1953 (translated by the wonderful G.E.M Anscombe) - http://gormendizer.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Ludwig.Wittgenstein.-.Philosophical.Investigations.pdf
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