Dear Lauchlan,
Not sure why Fritz had to show off by rejecting an honest man just to
show how smart his own system is, if that is indeed what he did?
Many people, including Dewey, have written extensively about Problems
and Perplexity. I have given a sample, below, of Michael Polanyi's
general philsophical account that is instructive and useful, I suggest,
in the current PhD Design list topic.
It is crucial for me, as a supervisor, that my students do have a
perplexing problem. This is one indication that they are working on a
PhD and not a big fat Masters. Equally, it is probably crucial that
design firms do NOt take on perplexing problems without blank cheques.
cheers
Keith Russell
newcastle OZ
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Extract from:
Michael Polanyi
Problem Solving
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 8 (30)
August 1957, 89-103.
<http://www.culturaleconomics.atfreeweb.com/Anno/
Polanyi%20Problem%20Solving%20BJPS%201957.htm> (accessed March 30, 2007)
THERE is a purposive tension from which no fully awake animal is free.
It consists in a readiness to perceive and to act, or, more generally
speaking, to make sense of its own situation, both intellectually and
practically. From these routine efforts to retain control of itself and
of its surroundings, we can see emerging a process of problem solving,
when the effort tends to fall into two stages, a first stage of
perplexity, followed by a second stage of doing and perceiving which
dispels this perplexity. We may say that the animal has seen a problem
if its perplexity lasts for some time and we can clearly recognise that
it tries to find a solution to the situation which puzzles it. In doing
so the animal is searching for a hidden aspect of the situation, the
existence of which it surmises and for the finding or achieving of which
the manifest features of the situation serve it as tentative clues or
instruments.
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