Dear Terry,
With apologies, I’m not going to answer. You didn’t read carefully what I wrote — you jump too fast to the meanings that suit your purposes, and miss what people say. Sorting this out takes too much time.
Trying to unpack all this would have to begin with what you missed, and it’s not important enough to me. No one with the capacity to address broad, domain-independent issues seems to feel it worth the debate.
Purposes — goals — are always value-laden. The notion of a primary purpose for any form of research or theory depends on the interests and values of the researcher. Many people who engage in one field or another of design research participate in more than one field. Some people study colour theory to improve design outcomes. Others study colour theory to understand the human mind or the human eye. Still others may study colour theory to learn something about primate evolution or the action of early human beings in different kinds of environments. For those people, different forms of curiosity may be more significant or important than improving design outcomes.
Design history is another case. A few days back, you made the untrue claim that design history provides a case of permissible plagiarism for designers. While this is not true, there are many valid purposes for design history other than improving design outcomes in the present. Understanding design history may serve to help designers learn how to design better. But other people have other purposes. Understanding the evolution of form is one. Mapping the spread of sociotechnical innovation is another. Examining the relationship between designed artefacts and economic growth is a third reason.
For an example of the relationship between designed artefacts and economic growth, consider the history and development of the plough from 4,000 BCE or so through the modern era is intimately linked with the development of agriculture and the capacity of different civilisations, societies, and nations to feed populations in ever-larger urban areas, encouraging and permitting the growth of non-agricultural industry. The growth of cities and empires, the formation of standing armies and stable governing structures, the slow transition from small-plot farming to massive agribusiness farming all have something to do with the evolution of plough design. The history of plough design is a specific field of design history. It probably doesn’t interest many people, but it is quite lively for those whom it interests. Some people study plough design to make better ploughs. Other study plough design for other reasons. For those others, the history of plough design may be quite different than it might be for you.
To my way of thinking, the notion that “The primary role of ALL theoretical aspects of design (including Design History and Design Research) is to provide better prediction of design outcomes resulting from design decisions” is an example of narrow thinking. It resembles the notion that all research must be immediately useful in some direct form of industrial application or some form of business.
There are many valuable purposes for research and theory in every discipline and every field, design among them. No single purpose among these is primary.
Your insistence that you have stated a scientific truth by announcing your goals and interests makes it difficult to engage in a rich conversation. Design history has many purposes. Perhaps your view is itself limited by a form of domain dependency, flavoured by the notion that everything must contribute to better design outcomes as you define them.
At this point, I will leave the conversation.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, Ph.D., D.Sc. (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Tongji University in Cooperation with Elsevier | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| Eminent Scholar | College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning | University of Cincinnati ||| Email [log in to unmask] | Academia https://tongji.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn
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