Dear all,

I just wanted to say, that I am very glad that the discussion arrived here, were it is now with 
Johan’s, David’s and Jinan’s latest posts…

Interestingly also good old Goethe had his Faust say the following:

Faust:
Habe nun, ach! Philosophie,
Juristerei und Medizin,
Und leider auch Theologie
Durchaus studiert, mit heißem Bemühn.
Da steh ich nun, ich armer Tor!
Und bin so klug als wie zuvor;
Heiße Magister, heiße Doktor gar
Und ziehe schon an die zehen Jahr
Herauf, herab und quer und krumm
Meine Schüler an der Nase herum –
Und sehe, daß wir nichts wissen können!
Das will mir schier das Herz verbrennen.
Zwar bin ich gescheiter als all die Laffen,
Doktoren, Magister, Schreiber und Pfaffen;
Mich plagen keine Skrupel noch Zweifel,
Fürchte mich weder vor Hölle noch Teufel –
Dafür ist mir auch alle Freud entrissen,
Bilde mir nicht ein, was Rechts zu wissen,
Bilde mir nicht ein, ich könnte was lehren,
Die Menschen zu bessern und zu bekehren.
Auch hab ich weder Gut noch Geld,
Noch Ehr und Herrlichkeit der Welt;
Es möchte kein Hund so länger leben!
Drum hab ich mich der Magie ergeben,
Ob mir durch Geistes Kraft und Mund
Nicht manch Geheimnis würde kund;
Daß ich nicht mehr mit saurem Schweiß
Zu sagen brauche, was ich nicht weiß;
Daß ich erkenne, was die Welt
Im Innersten zusammenhält,
Schau alle Wirkenskraft und Samen,
Und tu nicht mehr in Worten kramen.

Englisch translation:

Ah! Now I’ve done Philosophy,
I’ve finished Law and Medicine,
And sadly even Theology:
Taken fierce pains, from end to end.
Now here I am, a fool for sure!
No wiser than I was before:
Master, Doctor’s what they call me,
And I’ve been ten years, already,
Crosswise, arcing, to and fro,
Leading my students by the nose,
And see that we can know - nothing!
It almost sets my heart burning.
I’m cleverer than all these teachers,
Doctors, Masters, scribes, preachers:
I’m not plagued by doubt or scruple,
Scared by neither Hell nor Devil –
Instead all Joy is snatched away,
What’s worth knowing, I can’t say,
I can’t say what I should teach
To make men better or convert each.
And then I’ve neither goods nor gold,
No worldly honour, or splendour hold:
Not even a dog would play this part!
So I’ve given myself to Magic art,
To see if, through Spirit powers and lips,
I might have all secrets at my fingertips.
And no longer, with rancid sweat, so,
Still have to speak what I cannot know:
That I may understand whatever
Binds the world’s innermost core together,
See all its workings, and its seeds,
Deal no more in words’ empty reeds.

All the best

Ursula Tischner

econcept, Agency for Sustainable Design
Albatrosweg 11
50259 Pulheim
Tel.: +49-151-22650776
[log in to unmask]
www.econcept.org
_________________________________
powered by green energy
please think before printing
—————————————————
JOIN THE INNONATIVES OPEN PLATFORM FOR SUSTAINABILITY (BETA)
http://www.innonatives.com
--------------------------------------------------------
Free Publications: 

„How to do Ecodesign“, completely updated version in English and German (Was ist Ecodesign)
Available as iBook and E-Book:
E-Book: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/how-to-do-ecodesign
I-Book: https://itunes.apple.com/de/book/how-to-do-ecodesign/id1135764180?mt=11

„Changing Paradigms: Designing for a Sustainable Future“ edited by Peter Stebbing and Ursula Tischner for the CUMULUS Network. Available as PDF from
http://www.cumulusassociation.org/changing-paradigms-designing-for-a-sustainable-future/

> Am 28.07.2017 um 08:57 schrieb Johann van der Merwe <[log in to unmask]>:
> 
> David wrote:
> 
> “There is no single KNOWLEDGE. There is only a series of interlinked usages
> which make sense only within the specific context in which we choose to use
> them and agree to do so as a community of language users. In his earlier
> work he talked about language games by which he meant the rules of usage we
> apply in particular context.”
> 
> 
> I would add to that – there is no single knowledge container, and further,
> there is no such thing as a knowledge container, because there is no such
> thing as “knowledge”. The worst mistake that has ever been made is to
> fondly believe that “knowledge” can be transferred during the process of
> education, when the only thing being transferred / learned is information.
> (Real) knowledge is created in the mind of the individual, which is why a
> dissertation / thesis is necessary to explain / expound on the path(s)
> taken to the (temporary) end resolution / conclusion.
> 
> 
> In my thesis I wrote:
> 
> “In using language, and especially language-use that admits of
> language-games *a la *Wittgenstein, one has to be careful not to mislead,
> particularly when the text is purporting (cf. my use of the term *comport*,
> above: both terms carry or convey the sense of *offering */ *giving *something,
> in this case an opinion or viewpoint [purport] or a way of dealing with the
> world [comport]) to establish what the reader might take for “the truth”,
> but subsequently discover, through interpretation of the same text, that a
> difference in opinion exists, and therefore might declare the text as
> “empirically” or factually false (according to another’s opinion /
> interpretation). It has to be emphasized that research, with the intention
> of delving into the social sciences (i.e., design research), has to admit
> the qualitative and subjective element *within *social constructivism, and
> allow for the hypothetical viewpoint that the writer / researcher is
> writing *from*, thereby judging the *design *or structure of the argument
> instead of the (in my view) inaccessible face of Mount Probable, i.e., a
> totality of horizons of expectations.”
> 
> 
> When Wittgenstein wrote: “the rules of usage we apply in particular
> context” he was pretty close to describing the (wicked) problems that
> Actor-network Theory highlighted … it all began with the drama that was the
> shellfish controversy of St Brieuc Bay … many fishermen, many boats, many
> rules & regulations, many transgressions, only so many scallops. Which
> “knowledge container” do you “listen” to? Who is speaking the truth? What
> exactly is the context of the problem space, and what language-game is
> being played, to whose rules?
> 
> 
> This social science investigation into the “sociology of translation” is so
> like design’s world of wicked and socially-constructed problem spaces that
> it makes no sense not to use ANT’s insights in design research … “there is
> no single KNOWLEDGE” says David, and there should be no single DISCIPLINE,
> says Johann (grandly speaking about himself in the third person).
> 
> 
> Think on't ... if there is no such thing as "knowledge" (unfettered,
> unmediated, unbiased, 100% objective, absolute), then it follows that there
> can be no such thing as a knowledge "container". 🙂
> 
> 
> Johann
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Dr. Johann van der Merwe
> Independent Design Researcher
> 
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
> Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
> -----------------------------------------------------------------



-----------------------------------------------------------------
PhD-Design mailing list  <[log in to unmask]>
Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design
Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design
-----------------------------------------------------------------