The Philosophy of Design

Having created a significant body of research on various aspects of aesthetics (such as the aesthetics of nature and architecture) Glenn Parsons, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Ryerson University, brings together and systematizes philosophical findings relevant to design from the fields of ‘aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of technology’ (p. 2). The author uses the Modernist movement's legacy as a starting point for his philosophical investigations of these findings and tests the validity of various theoretical standpoints by comparing and contrasting them with the Modernist perspective on design, beauty, and functionality. The main text of the book begins with Parsons investigating the ontology of design in ch. 1 ‘What is Design?’ where he surveys various definitions of design and, navigating between Jones’ understanding of design as ‘the intentional creation of a new kind of thing’ (p. 9), Bamford's theory of singular and multiple designs and Davies’ discussion of site-specific architectural designs that take into account ‘the site itself... as a part of their work’ (p. 17), demonstrates the complexity of the concept of design.

Aesthetics · Art · Beauty · Designtheory · Epistemology · Human–computer interaction · Metaphysics · Ontology · Perspective (graphical) · Philosophy of design · Point (geometry) · Sociology · Visual arts · Western philosophy · Architecture · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Design Education and Practice · Mathematics · Philosophy