Abstract
In 1978 I was a visiting professor of the University of Bielefeld in West-Germany. During one of my lectures I made a stupid mistake. I used the nonexistent expressions alpha-Wissenschaften, beta-Wissenschaften and gamma-Wissenschaften when I explained the influence of scientific research on technological designs. My students’ eyes told me that they didn’t understand a word. And of course, they did not. I was literally translating Dutch concepts into German. The in Dutch so-called alpha disciplines are humanities like literature, law, philosophy. Our beta disciplines are sciences, for instance mathematics, physics, chemistry. Examples of our gamma disciplines are economics and behaviouristic psychology; they have things in common with sciences as well with humanities. In the context of this Dutch distinction technological disciplines belong to the beta sciences.
“ ... the scholar who says he detests any kind of science is not only ridiculous: his attitude is decidedly harmful. Harmful because it encourages those who are responsible for decisions that may determine the fate of mankind to be intentionally ignorant about the material background against which their decisions should be taken. Harmful also because authors and scholars, while gladly using modern commodities, fail to see the philosophical implications of science and tend to deny scientists and engineers their legitimate place in culture. But we, scientists and engineers, we know that we have not only created material things and above all we know that we contribute to better relations between nations and peoples. For us it is easy to have understanding of and objective appreciation for the work of others, and from there it is not difficult to arrive also at human understanding and appreciation ” [H.B.G. Casimir, 1965; italics added]
I thank dr. Marc de Vries for his invitation to present a new version of Sarlemijn (1990.)
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Sarlemijn, A. (1993). Designs are Cultural Alloys, ‘STeMPJE’ in Design Methodology. In: de Vries, M.J., Cross, N., Grant, D.P. (eds) Design Methodology and Relationships with Science. NATO ASI Series, vol 71. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8220-9_9
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