Dear Rosan,
When you ask about "design knowledge" do you ask
about knowledge of designs---knowledge of things that
have already been designed---or do you ask about
knowledge of designing---knowing how to design
things?
Knowledge of designing presumably includes (at least
some) knowledge of designs, but knowledge of designs
does not necessarily involve having any knowledge
of designing.
Yet a third way I see of understanding your question,
and perhaps the way you intend, is that you are asking
if designing is a way of knowing (or coming to know)
the world that is distinct from other ways of knowing
the world, such as scientific knowledge. If it this that
you ask about, then I would say that designing is
a way of understanding the world that is different, but
not unrelated to, a scientific understanding. Typically
some scientific understanding is needed to support
the designing, but not always, and not necessarily.
All this is without getting into what you want to mean
by the term knowledge, of which more can and
probably needs to be said.
I hope this helps some!
Best regards,
Tim Smithers
CEIT, Donostia / San Sebastián
=====================
At 27/09/2000, you wrote:
(Disclaimer: all questions are asked to aid understanding and they are
mainly
a reflection of Rosan's cognitive disequilibrium).
Hi members of the list:
I am struggling over the nature of design knowledge and would like to get
some help.
I have learned that the epistemological traditions of the (social) sciences
can roughly be categorized as Objectivism, Subjectivism, and
Constructionism.
May I say that the scientific view on the world is that it is knowable
through either discovery, invention or construction?
Now, my question is if design is different from science in that design
operates in the space of 'can be' - something that is still to be happened,
how can design knowledge be known and can it be known?
Sincerely yours
Rosan
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