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The Philosophy of Design is an introduction to the fundamental philosophical issues raised by the contemporary practice of design. The first book to systematically examine design from the perspective of contemporary philosophy, it offers a broad perspective, ranging across key philosophical areas such as aesthetics, epistemology, metaphysics and ethics. The first part of the book explores central issues about the nature of design and its products, and the rationality of design methods. A central theme is that Modernist ideas, such as those offered by Loos and Gropius, provide important responses to these philosophical issues. In the second part of the book, these Modernist ideas serve as touchstones in the exploration of key issues for design, including: the place of aesthetics in design; design s relation to personal expression; the meaning of function; and design s relation to consumerism. The social responsibility of designers, and the impact of design practice on ethical reasoning are also discussed.
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With this volume we present 24 contributions to the philosophy of design. Design is an emerging topic in philosophy and not yet one on which work is shaped by a common set of questions or by an academically entrenched discipline of philosophy of design. We therefore consider it an effort in itself that we can present 24 contributions. Throughout the years we have approached in our careers design from our separate disciplinary perspectives and probed whether design was becoming a more general topic of philosophical re ection. One of us (Pieter) is working in a philosophy department and analyzed design as part of a larger project within the philosophy of technology. This has led to a predecessor volume on the philosophy of design (Vermaas et al. 2008), analyses of design (Houkes and Vermaas 2010), joint work with design researchers on the structure of design (e.g., Vermaas and Dorst 2007), and to the creation of the Design Research Foundations book series, in which this volume has appeared. The second of us (Stéphane) is working in a design department and a design research center. He analyzed design from a phenomenological perspective and contributed to developing the knowledge of design in France. These efforts led to a monograph about how design affects, structures, and frames experience (Vial 2010) and to the founding of the French- speaking journal Sciences du Design edited by Stéphane. Our separate work may be taken as proof that design has found its way to philosophy, yet when teaming up we discovered a more substantial interest.
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"Introduction to Design Theory" introduces a comprehensive, systematic, and didactic outline of the discourse of design. Designed both as a course book and a source for research, this textbook methodically covers the central concepts of design theory, definitions of design, its historical milestones, and its relations to culture, industry, body, and ecology, language, society, gender, and ideology. Demonstrated by a shift towards the importance of the socio-cultural context in which products are manufactured and embedded, this textbook showcases design theory as an emerging sub-discipline of design, unique in its practice-based approach and its broad perception of design. It offers an in-depth understanding of the central concepts, such as "form" and "function", "theory" and "practice", through a discussion of key case studies and historical examples, such as the advent of the view of design in antiquity, the introduction of mass production to modernist design, or the ideological shifts in design in the mid-20th century, as well as analytical tools for further dissection and learning in practice. With a focus on a combination of several theoretical knowledge bases: aesthetics and philosophy, critical theories, cultural studies, design history and design anthropology, the reader is enabled to approach design as a central pivot around which contemporary culture revolves, reflecting, reaffirming or challenging social and cultural structures. Aimed towards undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as teachers and scholars, from across the design disciplines, Introduction to Design Theory invites readers to engage with design from an interdisciplinary perspective, departing from the traditional academic compartmentalization of practice, history and philosophy.
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International Journal of Technology and Design Education
Philosophy of technology is a discipline that has great relevance for technology education. That was why this journal in the past had some special issues on the philosophy of technology, and why new books in that field are reviewed regularly here. “Philosophy and Design”, edited by Vermaas, Kroes, Light and Moore is such a publication. It offers a rich palette of essays and those who will read it, will get a good impression of the sort of themes and issues that are addressed now in this specific branch of philosophy. Twenty-six essays have been brought together in this volume, and that number makes it impossible to discuss them all in detail. In this review I will make an effort to show the variety of topics that are represented in the book. I hope our readers will feel themselves invited to read the book to get a fuller picture of what it has to offer.Several of the contributions to this volume seem to have had their origin in a conference that was held in Delft, the Netherlands, in 2 .
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