lecture 9

Philosophy of the artificial
Luke started off stating major ‘eras’ of philosophy

• Ancient philosophy (Greek) 6BC
• Catholic philosophy 1100-1400AD
• Modern philosophy – now

He then addressed what is philosophy.
It is in the gap between religion and science.
It has subtopics of

• Epistemology – the theory of knowledge – what is truth/knowledge?
• Ontology – metaphysics – our existence/what is it to be
• Ethics – how do you live your life well
• Aesthetics – beauty, art sensory perception
• Mind – what is thinking/consciousness
• Natural – sciences, physics, biology, etc

He then asks the question “Why is it useful for us to know about philosophy? And how do our own personal world views, background and training effect our designs, consciously or unconsciously?”
Luke went on to talk about the epistemology of design. What is design knowledge and how is it different from other disciplines? What is valid or true knowledge in design?
Design as an academic discipline has only been around since the l970s so it is quite a new field. However, designing itself has been around since the “beginning of time”. Because of this it takes its influences and ways of thinking from all sorts of different sources. Luke then looked at “what is design knowledge based on a worldview from Descartes” and “What is the enlightenment?”
During the period of the Enlightenment there became a separation between knowledge based on religion and what the Church was telling people and knowledge based on discovery by scientists.
The definition of real knowledge became what could be seen and measured.
He then went on to say that light = truth and what was illuminated and understood through seeing was true.
The idea that if you can see it, it is true; if you cannot see it, it is not true.
Descartes said, “I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am”
One of the questions Luke talked about was “’how can we tell if what we see is the same as what others see?”
Descartes represented the relationship between the mind and the world as a pinhole camera and the image which is inside the camera is representative of what you know in your mind and that the things that are most truthful are the things which are clear and distinct in the picture.
He then went on to talk more about looking at knowledge through the metaphor of “seeing” – that you should observe the world and not be in the world.
He also talked about dualism and a Cartesian perspective in which a person is only an observer and detached from the world. But this isn’t good enough for design because a designer needs to interact and be within the world.
He then talked about Heidegger and phenomenology and how we need to not only observe the world but to interact and be within it. [Phenomenology dictionary definition - the science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being.
• an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience.]

Luke wrapped up to say that when we consider what is valid or rigorous we need a non-seeing epistemology. Good design comes when the design is both relevant and deals with an element of risk.