Terry et al, I agree!
Cheers.
Fil
Terence Love wrote:
> Dear Sabine, Fil, and Carl,
> This discussion.seesm to echo a key theorymaking issue underlying other problems in design research.
> It's most easy to see in relation to definitions of design. Over time and across design sub-fields, definitions of design ahave been made across a broad spectrum. Most definitions are problematic and tend to lie at two ends of the spectrum.
>
> 1. Defining design to include nothing.
> This is usually done by defining design as something else. For example, "design is drawing". We already have a good literature, theories, etc about drawing - so why use the term design if it includes nothing other than drawing.
>
> 2. Defining design to include everything.
> This is done in a variety of ways. It is actually a varient of the first because 'design is everything' effectively defines nothing.
>
> If you define a theory of design so that designing is 'done' by 'context' then you have defined a situation of 'everything designing everything'. This is in theory terms likely to be unsatisifactory. In philosophical terms there are some other problems as you have also given agency and will to a theoretical object (context) and reduced the picture of life to a very mechanical representation of anything acts on anything.
>
> I'm not arguing that designing shouldn't take into account context. Clearly this is an important part of the work of all designers in producing designs that work or are optimal.
>
> I'm suggesting we choose carefully how we define concepts and build theories to represent how designs are created and used, and that it is better to choose them to make good sense epistemologically so we can create sound theory systems that will come together to form a good knowledge base for the design field.
>
> Best wishes,
> Terry
> [...]
--
Prof. Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Ryerson University Tel: 416/979-5000 x7749
350 Victoria St. Fax: 416/979-5265
Toronto, ON email: [log in to unmask]
M5B 2K3 Canada http://deed.ryerson.ca/~fil/
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