Re: Design Philosophy

I think I take much of my thinking about design from other fields--I've read more philosophy as it relates to education, or to the arts in general (aesthetics), or to storytelling, psychology, and the writing process. Some thinkers that have had an effect of me came to mind:

I'll start with the father of all things progressive education: John Dewey (a philosopher, no relation to the Dewey decimal system). Experience and Education is one of the most life-changing books that I've ever read--it's quite short, too, so no excuse not to read it. What still stands out to me from reading it about a decade ago is that Dewey argues that all experiences are education, not just what happens in a classroom or an enriching environment. [Read: all things are designed. Some are just designed poorly.]

He questions traditional education formats (think memorization and lecture-style teaching) because they tend to create what he calls "mis-educable" experiences. True learning experiences, for Dewey, are those that open a person up to more new experiences. For example, when a baby learns a language, that learning has opened the child to new understandings; when the child learns to write, that child can communicate in even more new ways. If that same child then has a negative experience in an English class, for example, and s/he decides "I'm not good at writing," that experience closes him/her off from more learning. This is not to say that learning should not be difficult, but that it should be built around a student doing something that is challenging but within reach so as to maintain a high level of engagement.

And what does that have to do with design? I think design works the same way--design that makes you pick up a product or click through a website or feel welcomed in a space will lead to infinitely more possibilities because it creates engagement with that object. That engagement can then lead to more learning, even if not in the traditional sense.

If you want a more mystical read from a theory on culture, there's Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth. Though some of his ideas in the book are out of date (he was a comparative anthropologist and this book summarizing his ideas is from the '80s), it's is a good introduction to his theory of just about everything, based on comparing myths from various cultures. He writes these lovely, earnest nuggets like "Poets are simply those who have made a profession and a lifestyle of being in touch with their bliss." He also (more to the point) argues that "we need myths that will identify the individual not with his local group [or religion or nation] but with the planet." His argument is basically that society moves from one type of identification to another through time, each including a larger group of people as interaction with more and more people has been possible, so that now that we have the ability to connect on a global scale, we need new stories of what it means to be human, instead of what it means to be American, or French, or Protestant, or Muslim. I think there's something in design, in its combination of visual and verbal communication, that can reach directly to that level of myth. Language and icons are symbolic, and they come from that same place, which is a human place, an empathetic place. Design allows us to connect.

So beyond engaging with an object or connecting, I also think design benefits from an analytical mind. Another educational philosopher, Paolo Freire was a teacher from Brazil who analyzed education and its role in supporting the status quo, which in many cases, like in Brazil after a military coup, prevented the majority of people from benefiting from the possibilities inherent in learning. His writings advocate understanding learning as a potentially radical act toward freedom. Some ideas that resonate with me from his Pedagogy of the Oppressed:

Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.

Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.

For me, you could replace the word "education" with "design" in that last quotation and it would also be true. I think when design works best, it serves that hopeful inquiry, and it shows the critical, creative thought that people bring to the world around them.

And now, despite the facts that this is super-long, I'm not really sure I'm answering the question, and I'm a little mad at myself for not including any thoughts from women, I'm going to end with one of my favorite discussions of a philosophy on life, which hopefully parallels with design. This time it's from Neil deGrasse Tyson's AMA on Reddit when he was asked what he would tell a young man looking for motivation in life:

The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.

For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you. (emphasis mine)

 I think if anything I design can help anyone do either of those two things, I'd be pretty satisfied.