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Concept

Philosophy of design

Philosophy of design
Created by Wolfgang Beyer with the program Ultra Fractal 3. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Overview

Philosophy of design is the study of definitions of design, and the assumptions, foundations, and implications of design. The field, which is mostly a sub-discipline of aesthetics, is defined by an interest in a set of problems, or an interest in central or foundational concerns in design. In addition to these central problems for design as a whole, many philosophers of design consider these problems as they apply to particular disciplines (e.g. philosophy of art).

Although most practitioners are philosophers specialized in aesthetics (i.e., aestheticians), several prominent designers and artists have contributed to the field. For an introduction to the philosophy of design see the article by Per Galle at the Royal Danish Academy of Art.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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  1. In the third place, we shall limit ourselves to the particular consideration of the principle itself. Each principle has reigned for a certain time, and when the whole system of the world has been explained from this special form, it is called a philosophical system. Its whole theory has certainly to be learned, but as long as the principle is abstract it is not sufficient to embrace the forms belonging to our…

    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy

    States what Philosophy of design is.

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  2. The object is then called beautiful; and the faculty of judging by means of such a pleasure (and, consequently, with universal validity) is called Taste. For since the ground of the pleasure is placed merely in the form of the object for reflection in general--and, consequently, in no sensation of the object, and also without reference to any concept which anywhere…

    Immanuel Kant, Kant's Critique of Judgement

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  3. More emphasis has been put upon what philosophy is not than upon what it may become. But it is not necessary, it is not even desirable, to set forth philosophy as a scheduled program. There are human difficulties of an urgent, deep-seated kind which may be clarified by trained reflection, and whose solution may be forwarded by the careful development of hypotheses. When it is understood that philosophic thinking is…

    John Dewey, Creative Intelligence

    States what Philosophy of design is.

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