design of philosophy of design of philosophy of design
Within the actual world are myriad objects of myriad materials which can be combined or taken apart, in myriad ways. Within the formational world are myriad subjects to whom reality is given and withheld, each in its own way, according to receptive capacities and responsive capabilities. Within the revelatory world is being beyond subjectivity and Continue reading Quadrephania
From Scholem s Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism: the Zohar s sexual symbolism reflects the influence of two different tendencies. Insofar as it shows a positive attitude towards the function of sexual life, within the limits ordained by divine law, it may be said to represent a genuinely Jewish outlook. Chastity is indeed one of the highest Continue reading Intercursive knowing
Any service designer will tell you that value exchanges (or cocreation) are our core concern. At every point in the unfolding of service, value is exchanged or generated among those receiving, delivering and supporting that service. If the value exchange is solid, the service feels worth it to everyone, and everyone plays their part. If Continue reading Systemic gift-rejection
I ve had many names for this book brewing in my head, each with its own thematic emphasis. The book always concerns the relationship between design practice, our own personal and collective psychic-orders (faith) and our experience of the world. The core claim is always the same: our conceptions of design, of philosophy and of religion Continue reading Volume titles
Open note to self: Nihilitude protects all everythings from exnihilation in the infinite. This is my reunderstanding of tzimtzum.
For the last several years, Susan and I have been collaborating on a philosophy of parenting. It is an application of a more general philosophy, and that philosophy is the instauration of an intuitive faith which is the substance of our marriage the heart of our shared enworldment. (For background see the autobiographical endnote.) Continue reading The uncanny craft of parenting
My own philosophical development, guided by the problems I intuit and feel most urgently, has led me through but past the regions of reputability established by twentieth century academic philosophy. I carry with me the beautiful and indispensable insights of pragmatism, phenomenology, existentialism and hermeneutics. But in the course of rethinking how I think, why Continue reading The Yes on the…
I have an unusual approach to oracles: I bracket all thaumaturgic practice, and focus solely on the descriptive languages embedded in the oracular system. The question of whether chance-based methods produce meaning or randomness is an important one, but it is an important question toward which I practice fastidious incuriosity. I keep the symbols and Continue reading Therapeutic oracle
I was just poking through old posts looking for an old Rorty quote (roughly, anything can be made to look good or bad by being redescribed when came upon an old post from July 2021, where I realized something simple and shocking: language is one prototyping material. And I will add now, it is often Continue reading Prototype archetype
Excessive fear of being wrong leads to neglect of being right.
Last night I was bellyaching to my friend Zellyn about everyday workplace hypocrisies. Stuff like when we are invited into a safe space to speak our truth, as long as everything said harmonizes with official lies everyone officially believes with all our line-toeing little sleeve-hearts. And how the high-flying bullshit spouted by managerials, and all Continue reading Let them eat slop
It is truly hubristic for anyone to believe he has a right to dissent to disagree with one s supposed peers and alleged superiors that what they call true is sufficiently true, and what they call good or just is actually good and just. But I am not alone in my dissent. I am backed Continue reading Hubris of dissent
Well, I took the slack bait and responded to one of those inane watercooler topics . I m posting it only because the term social metaphysics emerged in my response, I think it s a good coinage. Social metaphysics has a nice ambiguity to it, too. It implies a socially shared metaphysics as well as a metaphysics of Continue reading Social metaphysics
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As a designer I care about three things. I care about making things people care about for many different but interconnected reason. An example, might be a pen with an appearance and tactility that resonates with the role of writing in their life. Or a bicycle that rides beautifully, but also reinforces the rider s sense Continue reading Recovering design
I heard someone say something darkly true: Anyone more religious than you is fanatical; anyone less religious than you is profane. This same principle can be applied to just about any attempt at balance. Wherever we set our mean is the zero point between deficit and excess. I say set our mean but in most Continue reading Watch setting
I think of Chokhmah as the infinitesimal pinhole of a camera obscura through which the infinite light of Keter projects into an almost as infinitesimal five-dimensional plane the width, breadth, depth, duration and awareness of the whole cosmogonic unfolding. In this projection within One, each one of us lives and dies as an everted holographic Continue reading Chokhmah obscura
Did I really never post the large print I made of Dickey s For the Last Wolverine ? Surely I did!
For the last several months I have convinced myself more and more completely that service system development should follow the example of software system development, and formally assign a trio of roles responsible for the desirability, feasibility and viability of what is being developed. In software system development, the product trio is: The UX designer Continue reading Beyond the…
Craft is material dialogue. Dialogue is conversation craft. Alchemy is the craft of crafts. First, I intuited it implicitly in R. J. Bernstein and Gadamer. Later, I found it stated directly in Buber: our best access to divine being is through dialogue with others. Dialogue presumes two things: alterity and a possibility of transformative understanding. Continue reading Alchemical design
Solid consulting advice from Chuang Tzu, twenty-three centuries before the invention of consulting: Yen Hui went to see Confucius and asked permission to take a trip. Where are you going? I m going to Wei. What will you do there? I have heard that the ruler of Wei is very young. He acts in an independent Continue reading Protoconsultant Chuang Tzu