Rhetoric and the Productive Sciences: Towards a New Program for Research in Design

Abstract

One of the central problems of design studies is the diversity of views about the subject matter, methods, and principles of design practice. These views stem from different philosophic assumptions and are part of the nature of design thinking. A new program for research in design should include an effort to clarify the diverse meanings of central concepts and the assumptions upon which they are based. This can provide a platform for further research into the peculiar indeterminacy of subject matter in design. This, in turn, could lead to a new type of rhetorical inquiry into the integrative disciplines of design thinking which give direction and purpose to the particular techniques and methods revealed in the study of designing. Investigation of themes such as communication, construction, strategic planning, and systemic integration—each a form of rhetoric that enables the cultivation of abilities such as invention, judgment, decision-making, and evaluation—is a critical task in the development of design theory. But the rhetoric of design thinking should be balanced by a new type of inquiry that is directed towards kinds of products and their related processes of making which constrain designers. This type of inquiry could be called “productive science,” in contrast to the forethought that characterizes design.