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I am puzzled by the suggestion that design and knowledge of design is somehow beyond the scope of other ways of knowing. It seems rather precious--a kind of special pleading for self-defense--to claim, on very vague and general grounds, that design just doesn't fit into the framework of human understanding as we have known it and as we continue to explore it in diverse ways. Before going down that path, we had better look closely at how this matter has been addressed in other areas of inquiry--and there is more than ample literature to consider. My response takes two forms. First, all inquiry is the investigation of possibilities and "what-if." To think otherwise is to imagine that truth is carved on the body of what exists and requires only to be excavated. This is a very narrow and naive vision of research and inquiry in other fields. In fact, it seems to trivialize the problem of inquiry in general. Special us and poor them. Second, as Bryn points out, design as a discipline is by no means unique in focusing on the creation of what does not yet exist. The first example of this that comes to mind is the discipline of rhetoric, which for more than two thousand years has been concerned precisely with the invention and creation of speeches that have not yet been made. The problem of writing and communication is an exceptionally close parallel with the problems that designers address, and writers in the former tradition have not found its future orientation to be an obstacle to clear thinking and articulation. Other examples cover the range of creative disciplines in the arts. And still other examples cover the range of human practical action--politics and related disciplines that seek to understand how human beings create and sustain various forms of organizational behavior--to say nothing of inquiry into ethics and moral behavior. It is also tempting to discuss the problems of theology over the centuries and across cultures as another example. In short, it is naive to suddenly declare the special status of design, as if no one else has ever considered the problem of creation. If this is where we are, then the "field" is surely in no small trouble. Dick %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%