Thinking Deeply Part 05: Nondual Thoughts

2009

Explorations in Systems Phenomenology in Relation to Ontology, Hermeneutics and the Meta-dialectics of Design Summary SYNOPSIS A Phenomenological Analysis of Emergent Design is performed based on the foundations of General Schemas Theory. The concept of Sign Engineering is explored in terms of Hermeneutics, Dialectics, and Ontology in order to define Emergent Systems and Metasystems Engineering based on the concept of Meta-dialectics. ABSTRACT Phenomenology, Ontology, Hermeneutics, and Dialectics will dominate our inquiry into the nature of the Emergent Design of the System and its inverse dual, the Meta-system. This is an speculative dissertation that attempts to produce a philosophical, mathematical, and theoretical view of the nature of Systems Engineering Design. Emergent System Design, i.e., the design of yet unheard of and/or hitherto non-existent Systems and Metasystems is the focus. This study is a frontal assault on the hard problem of explaining how Engineering produces new things, rather than a repetition or reordering of concepts that already exist. In this work the philosophies of E. Husserl, A. Gurwitsch, M. Heidegger, J. Derrida, G. Deleuze, A. Badiou, G. Hegel, I. Kant and other Continental Philosophers are brought to bear on different aspects of how new technological systems come into existence through the midwifery of Systems Engineering. Sign Engineering is singled out as the most important aspect of Systems Engineering. We will build on the work of Pieter Wisse and extend his theory of Sign Engineering to define Meta-dialectics in the form of Quadralectics and then Pentalectics. Along the way the various ontological levels of Being are explored in conjunction with the discovery that the Quadralectic is related to the possibility of design primarily at the Third Meta-level of Being, called Hyper Being. Design Process is dependent upon the emergent possibilities that appear in Hyper Being. Hyper Being, termed by Heidegger as Being (Being crossed-out) and termed by Derrida as Differance, also appears as the widest space within the Design Field at the third meta-level of Being and therefore provides the most leverage that is needed to produce emergent effects. Hyper Being is where possibilities appear within our worldview. Possibility is necessary for emergent events to occur. Hyper Being possibilities are extended by Wild Being propensities to allow the embodiment of new things. We discuss how this philosophical background relates to meta-methods such as the Gurevich Abstract State Machine and the Wisse Metapattern methods, as well as real-time architectural design methods as described in the Integral Software Engineering Methodology. One aim of this research is to find the foundation for extending the ISEM methodology to become a general purpose Systems Design Methodology. Our purpose is also to bring these philosophical considerations into the practical realm by examining P. Bourdieu’s ideas on the relationship between theoretical and practical reason and M. de Certeau’s ideas on practice. The relationship between design and implementation is seen in terms of the Set/Mass conceptual opposition. General Schemas Theory is used as a way of critiquing the dependence of Set based mathematics as a basis for Design. The dissertation delineates a new foundation for Systems Engineering as Emergent Engineering based on General Schemas Theory, and provides an advanced theory of Design based on the understanding of the meta-levels of Being, particularly focusing upon the relationship between Hyper Being and Wild Being in the context of Pure and Process Being. See also http://schematheory.net and http://emergentdesign.net

The conceptual foundations for A Designer's Theory of Mind can be traced to four outstanding sources; one from 1956, The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our capacity for processing information-and three from 1987: Women Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind by George Lakoff, The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning Imagination and Reason by Mark Johnson and The Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky. Together these books describe issues of information, communication, artificial intelligence, psycholinguistics, situated cognition, and environmental psychology that at that time drew attention to design thought and action regarding humans, their capabilities, constraints and relationships to the environments they inhabit. This paper describes such purposeful thought, its expression, and practical application to subjects and situations that involve design.

Design Studies, 2000

This paper focuses on the structure and dynamic of theory in design research. Problems with existing theory are explored, and a new meta-theoretical method is suggested for assisting the critical analysis, comparison and formulation of design theories and concepts. This meta-theoretical method contributes to building a simplifying paradigm of design research by providing a means to clarify the existing state of design theory in the field, to assist with the establishment of coherence and compatibility between concepts in disparate theories, to validate theory and concepts, and to uncover 'hidden' aspects of design theories.

2019

On the Functional Identity Kernel of the Designed Object and the Disposable Entity as Object of Design that Expresses Emergent Sense -- On Complex Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems in Aspectual Identity Flux -- The Meta-systemic Fluctuation of System Identities in relation to the Special Systems -- Future of Systems Engineering as ‘Synergistic Engineering’ is in designing and becoming Complex Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems -- Abstract: Exploration of the Identity of the Designed Object and the disposable entity that is the Object of Design. -- Key Words: Complex Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems, Emergent Meta-systems, Special Systems, Systems Engineering Futures, FuSE, Design Science, Aspectual Identity Flux

CAADRIA proceedings

This paper presents the organization of a design process which allows the inclusion of communities in a collaborative way and integrates cultural and social aspects of local context, by considering available material resources and equipment, local practices in architecture and construction, environmental features, and other aspects into the possibilities provided by parametric design and digital fabrication. This paper recognizes that design process is developed from interrelated actions, which can be understood by the concept of complexity from the French philosopher Edgar Morin.

FormAkademisk - forskningstidsskrift for design og designdidaktikk, 2020

This special issue of FormAkademisk comprises a selection of articles developed from presentations at the seventh Relating Systems Thinking and Design (RSD7) symposium, held at Politecnico di Torino, Turin, 23th-26th October 2018 (Barbero, 2018). A second collection from RSD7 is also planned to be published in FormAkademisk during 2020, continuing the close relationship between the journal and the RSD conference series (Forlizzi, Sevaldson, & Ryan, 2017; Hensel, Hensel, & Sevaldson, 2019; Jones, 2014; Sevaldson, 2018; Sevaldson & Ryan, 2014). The occasion of the RSD7 conference was especially important in the development of systemic design, being the occasion of the launch and founding meeting of the Systemic Design Association (SDA). The SDA will act as a membership organisation for the expanding community of practitioners and researchers that has developed through the RSD conferences.

International Journal of Systems and Society, 2013

Historically, because systems thinking is at its core about the relationship between ontological and epistemological phenomena, one of the fundamental problems of systems thinking has been the perceived dualism between mind and body. Any universal theory of systems thinking, therefore , must demonstrate a resolution to this problem. This paper provides the formal logic for the embodied basis for the four universal patterns of systems thinking.

A SHORT COURSE OF THE SYSTEM THEORY OF THINKING, 2019

Abstract The theory of thinking presented in this work is based on axioms, equally fair (isomorphic) to all levels of reality. The axiom of the binding a priori algo-rithm (the existence of programmes of any action, process prior to the beginning of the process or action) allowed to postulate the basic, constructive function of art: the function of creation of all regularities of the noosphere, all cognitive pro-cess programmes of emergence of concepts, judgments, conclusions. According to the theory, consciousness only reflects in the form of insight, in verbal format, the result of subconscious interaction of a problem (question) with art systems. Art is the only civilizational institution that creates all the designs, all the regular-ities of the noosphere. For making creative decisions (a new, previously non-existent product of thinking), the inner thinking of the subject, in addition to the verbal monologue-dialogue, should have a mental mechanism of operating the el-ements and systems of art. A single thought, defined in the theory of thinking as a trichotomy of kinaesthetics, figuratively-emotional pattern and sign-information symbol, is isomorphic both to the way of existence of a work of art and to thinking as a holistic system. This unity, which is positioned as the foun-dation and way of existence of society in the theory of thinking, allows to predict a positive change of national mentality by introducing the didactics of creativity into the learning process, which can only be achieved with activities in the arts. Keywords: system thinking, art, creativity, subconsciousness, insight.

Problem solving, systems thinking, and design thinking are disciplines practiced by all human beings and some higher animals. They are necessary in our efforts to achieve our goals and to survive. Problem solving is innate in all living things and its interpretation as a change of equilibrium makes it applicable throughout the inanimate world. However, the following problems are associated with these disciplines as practised in Western society today. Firstly, due to the highly specialist nature of society, formal processes have been developed in separate silos. Secondly, this formalisation has been founded on few, if any, fundamental concepts derived from the empirical world. Consequently, the language used to express them can be imprecise and lacking in confidence. Finally, these formalisations are practiced, by and large, in isolation from the rest of the field of intellectual endeavour.