Fatih Kursat Ozenc

plato_symposium

and when you say, i desire that which i have and nothing else, is not your meaning that you want to have what you now have in the future? he desires something which he has not already, and which is future and not present, and which he has not, and is not, and of which he is in want, these are the sort of thing which love and desire seek.
[p.254]

is not good also the beautiful?
yes.
then in wanting the beautiful, love wants also the good? [p255]

Diotima [wise woman]

love was neither fair nor good.

do not then insist she said, that what is not fair is of necessity foul, or what is not good evil: or infer that because love is not fair and good he is therefore foul and evil; for he is in a mean between them. [p.256]

and u admitted that love, because he was in want, desires those good and fair things of which he is in want? yes , i did. but how can he be a good who has no portion in what is either good or fair? p257

what then is love? i asked is he mortal? no what then? As in the former instance, he is neither mortal nor immortal, but in a mean between the two. what is he, diotima? he is a great spirit. and like all spirits he is intermediate between the divine and the mortal. [p.257]

he is in a mean between ignorance and knowledge. [p.258]

for wisdom is a most beautiful thing, and love is of the beautiful; and therefore love is also a philosopher of lover of wisdom, and being a lover of wisdom is in a mean between the wise and the ignorant. and of this too his birth is the cause; for his father is wealthy and wise, and his mother poor and foolish. [p.259]

what is the use of him to men? when a man loves the beautiful, what does he desire? i answered her that ‘the beautiful may be his.’ still she said, the answer suggests a further question: what is given by the possession of beauty? to what you have asked, i replied, i have no answer ready. then she said, let me put the word good, in the place of the beautiful, ….the possession of good. i said, and what does he gain who possesses the good? happiness. i replied…there is a mortal principle in the mortal creature, and in the inharmonious they can never be.
for love, socrates, is not as you imagine the love of the beautiful only? what then? the love of generation and of birth in beauty.

what is the object which they have in view?
the object which they have in view is birth in beauty; whether of body, or soul.

love is of the everlasting possession of good, all men will necessarily desire immortality together with good:wherefore love is of immortality. [p.262]

…
beauty as we have seen, is a value; it can not be conceived as an independent existence which affects our senses and which we consequently perceive. it exists in perception, and can not exist otherwise. a beauty not perceived is a pleasure not felt and a contradiction. [p.29]

beauty…is a value positive,intrinsic, and objectified. Or, in less technical language, Beauty is a pleasure regarded as the quality of a thing.

this definition is intended to sum up a variety of distinctions and identifications which should perhaps be here more explicitly set down. beauty is a value, that is, it is not a perception of a matter of fact or of a relation.:it is an emotion, an affection of our volitional and appreciative nature. an object can not be beautiful if it can give pleasure to nobody: a beauty to which all men were forever indifferent is a contradiction in terms.

beauty is constituted by the objectification of pleasure. it is pleasure objectified. 5

what is the definition of the inquiry?

inquiry is the controlled or directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole.

the antecedent conditions of inquiry:

1-the indeterminate situation

questionable..doubtful, obscure…

for nature is an environment only as it is involved in interaction with an organism, or self, or whatever name be used.

2- institution of a problem:

the indeterminate situation becomes problematic in the very process of being subjected to inquiry. the indeterminate situation comes into existence from existential causes, just as does, say the organic imbalance of hunger…to see that a situation requires inquiry is the initial step in inquiry.

it is but an initial step in institution of a problem.

a problem is not a task to be performed which a person puts upon himself or that is placed upon him by others. a problem represents the partial transformation by inquiry of a problematic situation into a determinate situation.

on the other hand, to set up a problem that does not grow out of an actual situation is to start on a course of dead work.

3.The determinate of a problem situation.

the determining of a genuine problem is a progressive inquiry.

ideas are anticipated consequences of what will happen when certain operations are executed under and with respect to observed conditions.

an idea is first of all an anticipation of something that may happen; it marks a possibility.

every idea originates a suggestion, but not every suggestion is an idea.

in logical fact, perceptual and conceptual materials are instituted in functional correlativity with each other, in such a manner that the former locates and describes the problem while the latter represents a possible method of solution. [p.111]

4. reasoning

the idea or meaning when developed in discourse directs the activities which, when executed, provide needed evidential material.

in many familiar situations, the meaning that is most relevant has been settled because of the eventuating of experiments in prior cases so that it is applicable almost immediately upon its occurrence.

5. the operational character of facts-meanings

….
summary

inquiry is the directed or controlled transformation of an indeterminate situation into a determinately unified one. the transition is achieved by means of operations of two kinds which are in functional correspondence with each other.

one kind of operations deals with ideational or conceptual subject–matter. this subject matter stands for possible ways and ends of resolution. it anticipates a solution…
the other kind of operations is made up of activities involving the techniques and organs of observation.

symbols, defining terms and propositions are necessarily required in order to retain and carry forward both ideational and existential subject matters in order that they may sere their proper function in the control of inquiry. otherwise the problem is taken to be closed and inquiry ceased.

objects are objectives of inquiry.

aristotles_ethics book VIII
for not everything seems to be loved, but only the lovable, and this is good, pleasant, or useful; but it would seem to be that by which some good or pleasure is produced that is useful, so that it is the good and the useful that are lovable as ends. do men love, then the good, or what is good for them?

now there are three grounds on which people love;

of the love of lifeless objects, we do not use the word ‘friendship’; for it is not mutual love, nor is there a wishing of good to the other…

to be friends, then they must be mutually recognized as bearing goodwill and wishing well to each other for one of the aforesaid reasons. [p.511]

there are three kinds of friendship, equal in number to the things that are lovable; for with respect to each there is a mutual and recognized love, and those who love each other wish well to each other in that respect in which that love one another. now those who love each other for their utility do not love each other for themselves but in virtue of some good which they get from each other. so too with those who love for the sake of pleasure; it is not for their character that men love ready-witted people, but because they find them pleasant.

therefore those who love for the sake of utility love for the sake of what is good for themselves, and those who love for the sake of pleasure do so for the sake of what is pleasant to themselves, and not in so far he is useful or pleasant.

perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in virtue; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves. now those who wish well to their friends for their sake are most truly friends; for they do this by reason of their own nature and not incidentally; therefore friendship lasts as long as they are good- and goodness is an enduring thing.

for a wish for friendship arise quickly, but friendship does not…

states like themselves for the sake of utility
children like themselves for the sake of pleasure

the truest friendship, then is that of the good, as we have frequently said; for that which is without qualification good or pleasant seems to be lovable and desirable, and for each person that which is good or pleasant to him, and the good man is lovable and desirable to the good man for both reasons.

now it looks as if love were a feeling, friendship is a state of character; for love may be felt just as much towards lifeless things, but mutual love involves choice and choice springs from a state of character; and men wish well to those whom they love, for their sake, not as a result of feeling but as a result of a state of character. [p.516]

for friendship is said to be equality, and both of these are found most in the friendship of the good. p.516

for love is an excess of feeling, and it is the nature of such only to be felt towards one person; and it is not easy for many people at the same time to please the same person very greatly, or perhaps even to be good in his eyes.
[p.517]
however aforesaid friendship s involve equality; for the friends get the same things from one another and wish the same things for one another, or exchange one thing for another, e.g.oleasure for utility; we have said, however, that they are both less truly friendships and less permanent. [p.518]

but there is another kind of friendship, that which involves inequality between the parties, that of father to son and in general elder to younger.
the love and the friendship are therefore different also. each party then, neither gets the same from the other, nor ought to seek it, but when children render to parents what they ought to render to those who brought them into the world…in all friendships implying inequality the love also should be proportional, i.e. the better should be more loved than he loves, and so should the more useful, and similarly in each of other cases; for when the love is in proportion to the merit of the parties, then in a sense arises equality, which is certainly held to be characteristics of friendship. [p.519]

now since friendship depends on more loving, and it is those who love their friends that are praised, loving seems to be the characteristic virtue of friends, so that it is only those in whom this is found in due measure that are lasting friends, and only their friendship that endures.[p.521]

friendship and justice seem, as we have said at the outset of our discussion, to be concerned with the same objects and exhibited between the same persons. for in every community there is thought to be some form of justice and friendship too… p.522
now all forms of community are like parts of the political community….p523.
all the communities then, seem to be parts of the political community; and the particular kinds of friendship will correspond to the particular kinds of community.
there are three kinds of constitution, and an equal number of deviation-forms, perversions, as it were, of them. the constitutions are monarchy, aristocracy, and thirdly,,,timocracy..

book III
Again the case of the arts and that of the virtues are not similar; for the products of the arts have their goodness in themselves, so that it is enough that they should have a certain character, but if the acts that are in accordance with the virtues have themselves a certain character it does not follow that they are done justly or temperately.the agent also must be in a certain condition when he does them; in the First place he must have knowledge, secondly he must choose the acts and choose them for their own sakes, and thirdly his action must proceed from a firm and unchangeable character.[p.374]

“Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying
in a mean, i.e. the mean relative to us, this being determined by a
rational principle, and by that principle by which the man of practical
wisdom would determine it.” (1106b 36-8)
wish relates rather to the end, choice to the means; for instance, we wish to be health but we choose the acts which will make us healthy.

that man is a moving principle of actions; now deliberation is about the thing to be done by the agent himself, and actions are for the sake of things other than themselves. for the end can not be a subject of deliberation, but only the means nor indeed can the particular facts be a subject of it.

the object of choice being one of the things in our own power which is desired after deliberation, choice will be deliberate desire of things in our own power, for when we have decided as a result of deliberation, we desire in accordance with our deliberation.

for each state of character has its own ideas of the noble and the pleasant, and perhaps the good man differs from others most by seeing the truth in each class of things, being as it were the norm and measure of them. in most things the error seems to be due to pleasure; for it appears a good when it is not. we therefore choose the pleasant as a good, and avoid pain as an evil.

the end, then being what we wish for, the means what we deliberate about and choose, actions concerning means must be according to choice and voluntary. now the exercise of the virtues is concerned with means.{p.395}

We live in a human-made world, driven by the complex relationship between the natural and artificial. This relationship is defined in terms of technological advances and people’s individual and social interactions with nature. Technology has been affecting people’s lives prominently since the 19th century, beginning with the industrial revolution and the emergence of mass production techniques, and continued with the invention of computers. Technology, apart from all high level advances, changed the basic aspects of human life, including individual, transportation, communication, home, and social life. All these changes transform how people make choices and how they act, but at the core of human nature, there remains character.

Individual and the social aspects of human characterize our nature. A human being can be classified into body and soul, where the soul consists of states of character, passions, and faculties (Aristotle). States of character are determined by the actions resulting from free will and choice. In this sense, the relation between the natural and artificial is determined by the states of character; the man-made world is a reflection of human nature onto the world.

States of character consists of moral and intellectual virtues. Design as the act of making, is an intellectual virtue. Designer designs a product by taking action in order to reach some good; he puts emphasis on the means while foreseeing the end. Formal, material, efficient, and end cause are what he considers while making choices and taking actions. How the artificial world effects, and is effected by the character will be highlighted with the following selections. It begins with the individual, and continues with the home, transportation, and communication.

Individual – Swiss Knife

A soldier needs to survive in a nomadic field experience. He needs different apparatuses in different contexts. He has limited space for all those different tools; he needs an ‘all in a nutshell’ product. That is a Victorinox Swiss (Fig1) knife first used in the Swiss army in 1897, with 16 blades and 29 functions. It is designed for optimum efficiency and maximum functionality. The character of the product depends on the efficient and final causes. The designer makes a choice to use the conception of pocketknife as his beginning point, and then constructs his whole idea by using springs and physical rotation and fixation of the features in different angles. He created physical affordance in any one of the closed states to help the soldier to use his finger toe. When all the features are closed the object is nothing more than a red knife handle. When the product was released, it became one of the prosthesis of the soldiers. The product mediates a persona for each of the function it serves: the soldier becomes a mechanic when he uses the screw, a manicurist when he uses the toe-rasp, a skillful craftsman when he uses a bunch of its features. The Swiss knife is by character both changing and unchanging. The conception of the product by the society gained new meanings when the same product reached different community of uses. For example, the character of the product helps a teenager to construct a new identity around the product. He identifies himself as a soldier or as a craftsman who is fully equipped.

Home – Dyson Vacuum Cleaner

A restless mother always complains about the maintenance of the vacuum-cleaner bag. A designer sees the maintenance of the vacuum cleaner as his problem space, and develops the Dyson vacuum cleaner (Fig 2). The idea is to use the cyclical motion of an engine in a way to perform suction without a bag as a new way of processing dust. The designer accepts the formal conception of the cleaner and does not change it a lot. The motivation is simply to make the maintenance of the cleaner easier and the performance higher. The invisibility of the dirtiness, and the tidiness of the processing are expressed in a transparent Plexiglas body design. The function is the determinant of the form. The character of the product changes the cleaning habit of its user. Character is reflected upon to the action of the user.

Transportation – VW Golf

‘Volkswagen’ means public car in German. It emerged from the period between the two World Wars and became well known with its streamlined Beetle model. The idea behind the Beetle was to produce a car for low-income families. While Beetles had become phenomena in the sixties, VW Golf (Fig 3) came up at the beginning of the seventies. It differs from the Beetle in its target audience, which is an intermediate audience who enjoy the driving experience in a more sportive manner while they can still use Golf in daily life context. Golf’s standing point is more than function. People would love their Golf, and find character traits in their car. So what makes Golf a car full of character? According to Aristotle, the states of character are hard to name in general, but the traces of character can be told by looking at its means and ends.

Golf’s formal quality refers back to the early modernism and Bauhaus understanding that can be crystallized by the ‘less is more’, and ‘ornament is a crime’ aphorisms. In this sense, Golf is a continuation of German functionalism. It has the stamina and a high attitude of performance, while its formal quality is neutral and flexible enough to give the owner a chance to express his/her own emotions. The car evolves from a machine to prosthesis of its owner. In addition, the social aspect of the car has been defined by the decision of the doors. If the designer offers a one-door option, the car suggests individualism and a sportive persona. If the designer suggests a five-door option, the car becomes a social space and welcomes people. Golf defines a modern, efficient, socially and individually aware user in its social acceptance. Its production story is not a retro-design experience. All of its five generations give the cue of the unchanging and changing aspects of its character. The latest model with more curvy lines gives the flavor of the zeitgeist and seems to be a strong choice of change, but its formal change supports its core idea, which is being fast and steadfast enough.

Communication – Google Blogging software tool

Writing is a need for many people. It’s a way to express their thoughts in a representational world. Writing a diary is the most reflexive way of writing. The shift from an intimate individual diary to an online diary is a new phenomenon of the highly computerized era. The diary concept transforms itself to an online open space where people can find acquaintances, communities, and friends. The root of individual expression in the virtual world has begun with the individual web pages. People use words, images, videos, and sounds to design their home (page) in a server town located in a virtual world. The idea was great, but the problem is that not everyone gets the chance to update their home frequently, and gradually they became a forgotten and outdated entity. The emergence of blogs, in this sense, can be seen as a transformation of the home page perception. People update their blogs regularly, and use other mediums like photography, motion picture, and sound as well. The character of writing is both changing and unchanging. It is changing because people now have the flexibility to write visual and sound diaries around specific themes, It is unchanging because writing still has its defined structure and grammar. There should be a theme, with a title, a beginning, a body and an end. By time, people formed blogging search tools, blogger communities and portals.
Selections from the artificial worlds give us the cues about the interaction between human nature, and the artificial. The interaction is motivated and stimulated by the states of character. States of character as Aristotle claimed are hard to name, but the traces can be followed based on the means, objects, and ends. Design that focuses on the interaction should follow these traces to shape products with character.

Character in its etymological definition means distinctive quality of its subject matter. Subject matter can be defined in a wide spectrum from inanimate objects to human beings. In context of human beings, character is the quality or a combination of qualities that distinguish and make up the individual. Throughout the formation of thought in human made history, the qualities of the individual have been interpreted with phenomenal and transcendental aspects. Phenomenal interpretations focus on the qualities that can be observable by the senses and perceptions, whereas transcendental interpretations look at the qualities that can be extracted by materialistic and holistic aspects. Whether phenomenal or transcendental, human character has been explored thorough the relations that have been interweaving by human (individual, and social), nature and the artificial. The relations have been shaped by the interactions, impression, and expressions of these dynamics. In this argument, human character will be explored within the dynamics of the designer (individual), community of use (social), and the products (artificial).

Human character in material sense is driven by the instinctual motives. Instincts can be sensual or perceptional qualities that form the temperament types according to Keirsey. Keirsey based on the Jungian theory states that human beings take actions by and according to their temperaments. These are inborn qualities that can transform and change by use. He says even all people share the similar instincts, they differ in their preferences. He called this how human being ‘function’. Based on the differentiation for instance, he suggests the Dionysian temperament that loves to use tools. Tools become an extension of the self, augmenting, amplifying, and sharpening the effect of action. A Dionysian tempered designer can reflect his/her character upon the tools he/she designs. The Swiss knife is a highly individual and Dionysian type product that was designed in pocket size dimension and multi function for its wide uses. It provides different tools for different situations that will enhance the capability of it user. The community of use will be fragmented by its choice of the features and frequency of their use. (Fig 1)

Individuals are not alone in their lives. They need other individuals to continue their lives. Character is then not only shaped by the individual’s soliloquy but also interaction with others. Interaction can be defined as the performance that takes place with the presence of other (active) individuals and spectators in a specific context (Goffman). Individuals foresee the possibilities and necessities of their performance before they encounter the interaction. That results in the emergence of social roles. Individual’s character is a changing quality as the holder of several social roles based on diverse presences of life. These presences are described by other individuals, spatial and time-based events. Products play an important role in this type of character formation. They help individuals to hold and carry dissimilar roles in different situations. They also help them who they want to be rather than who they are. In this sense products play the role of a catalyst, perfection prosthesis for their contextual presence. The whole culture motivated by the brand identity phenomenon is constructed on this underlying fact of the character. Products reflect the roles people want to be implicitly or explicitly. An explicit example can be a mobile product that can be carried in daily life, or an implicit one can be a product that can be used periodically in the living room. A water bottle that is designed for use in sportive activities can be an explicit example. The real use of it is in the gym or stadium context. It helps the user to fulfill her/his thirstiness. In this context it supports an activity. On the other hand the use of the same product in the campus or class supports a performance, a social role of being an athletic person.(Fig 2)

Life sometimes is not a performance at all, and human beings do have habits that are not changing in every context. They do have habits to take actions with their free will and choice for reaching some good. The choice- and the decision making process has been grounded by the states of character that consist of intellectual and moral virtues. A designer while designing a product considers both virtues in balance to reflect her/his character upon the product. Then, a product with a habitual character is displaying both of the intellectual and moral virtues. A classical bike carries both the moral and intellectual virtues in itself. Its simple mechanism lets the biker to pedal the bike to the desired destination. The critical thing to ride a bike is maintaining the balance while moving forward. To learn how to ride needs a basic intellectual virtue. Having learned to bike, it gains a habitual character that is never forgotten. Using a bike can be seen as a moral virtue referring back to being sensitive to the environment. (Fig 3)

Human character is also shaped by the values and ethics of the society. The expectations of the society define the territory of the choices and the actions to be taken. The value system can be a secular, religious, national, ideological, or a humanistic system. The designer’s choice reflects the referring system. The i-believe and the Islamic cell phone are examples of the social aspect of the character. In the i-believe example the i-pod phenomena gains a new meaning by the use of a cap in a cruciform (Fig 4). It refers back to a strong Christian belief system and Crucifixion. The gained character of the product transcends the listening music experience. In the second example, an Islamic cell phone merges the conception of the cell phone and the daily prayer activity by using the functional (software) and formal (cover of a Koran) means. Both examples points out the social aspect of the character. (Fig 5)

the following story is from the Mathnawi of Rumi (13th century sufi poet). i find it simple and smart, full of sense of humour. the story gives the conception of unity, cosmos in a very precise and short text:

there was an elephant in a dark house, brought by some hindus for exhibition. many people went to see it and had to enter the dark stable to do so. because it was so dark they could not make out the form of the elephant at all and had to work with their hands to identify its being, each person using his palm to find the shape. the hand of one fell on the creature’s trunk and he said. “this is a water pipe.” The hand of another touched the ear and found a fan. another handled the elephant;s leg and found a pillar, while another touched the back and discovered a throne, there were those who heard description from these folk and made their own identifications and there were still others who interpreted one shape as against another, all very diverse and contrary.

had there been a candle in each hand
the differences would have come from speech
the eye of self perception is like the palm and hand
for this has power to touch but part, not whole,
the eye of the sea is one thing, the foam another.
leave the foam and look through the eye, marvelous!
we dash against our sight like boats,
our eyes are blind, missing clear water.
the water has water driving it.
the spirit has a spirit calling it.
take the spirit home and let it drive,
for it will find the shape and the size and know the whole,
without a glance, without a touch, but always whole.

i have been reading an exciting book called “design writing research”, by Ellen Lupton&Abbott Miller. What i like about the book is the clarity and the integrity (of a well designed book and well articulated content).They have a website related to the book:

http://www.designwritingresearch.org/

here are some highlights from the Deconstructionism article:

deconstruction asks how representation inhabits reality.
how does the external image of thing get inside their internal essence?
how does the surface get under the skin?

the alphabet, in principal, represents the sounds of speech by reducing
them to a finite set of repeatable marks;

typography is but one of the media through which this repetition occurs.
the letter a might be carve in stone, written in pencil, or printed from an
engraved block, but only the last is properly speaking, typographic.
typographic production involves composing identical lettters into lines of text. the characters might be generated from relief surfaces, made of wood, metal, or rubber, or from a photographic negative, a digital code, or a paper stencil.

the art typography includes the design of letter-forms for reproduction and the arrangement of characters into lines of text. typographic features includes the choice of typefaces; the spacing of letters, word, lines, and columns, and the pattern formed by these graphic distinctions across the body of a document.

Post-structuralism is an attitude, not a style.

“death of the author”, which asserts that the interior self is constructed by external systems and technologies.

invention and revolution result from tactical aggressions against grid.

deconstruction in architecture ask questions about modernism by re-examining its own language, materials, and processes.

rather than looking at deconstruction as a historical style, or period, we see deconstruction as a critical process-an act of questioning.

Ferdinand Saussure asserted that the meaning of signs does not reside in the signs themselves: there is no natural bond between the signifier (the sign’s material aspect) and the signified (its referent). instead, the meaning of a sign comes only from its relationship to other signs in a system. this principle is the basis of structuralism, which focuses on patterns or structures that generate meaning rather than on the content of a given code or system.

to deconstruct the relationship between speech and writing is to reverse the status of the two terms, but not just to replace one with the other. deconstruction aims to show that speech is, at bottom, characterized by the same failure to transparently reflect reality, by the same internal emptiness.

so how about the function and the aesthetics of the deconstructionist design? koz

spacing, framing, punctuation, type style, layout, and other non-phonetic structures of difference constitute the material interface of writing. traditional literary and linguistic research overlooks such graphic forms, focusing instead on the Word as the center of communication. according to Derrida, the functions of repetition, quotation, and fragmentation that characterize writing are condition endemic to all human expression.

design
[Herbert Simon, Horst Rittel, Moholy Nagy, Dieter Rams]

Design is an integrative liberal art that makes connections between arts and technology. Its recognition as a discipline traces back to the industrial revolution in the late nineteenth century due to the emergence of mass production. Design since then has been defined in different contexts. From a more general perspective, Herbert Simon defines design as courses of actions that aim at changing an existing situation into a preferred one. For Rittel, it is plan making in which the motivation is imagining a desirable state of world by iterating alternative ways to achieve, and tracing the consequences of contemplated actions. In a more elaborated view, we can also describe design as the conceiving, planning, and implementing of artifacts, which varies from symbols to products, environments, organizations, and systems.

Design from a rhetorical point of view is enlivened in a triad of designer, product, and the community of use. The space that emerged in this triad characterizes the field of design practice, history, and research. A design practitioner may be interested in the product and community of use, whereas a design historian or design researcher may have an interest in all of them.

Herbert Simon has an interest in the designer. He tries to understand how the designer solves a problem that is related to the design process. He points out the idiosyncrasy of the design process that results in a fragmentation of natural and artificial sciences as a problem space in the university education. Having defined the problem, he suggests a science of design that will integrate the natural and artificial. Integration will be achieved by applying a theory of design that has methods of evaluation, search for alternatives and representation of the problem. He suggests using optimization methods that use declarative logic, and computational methods to evaluate the designs that use utility and decision making theories.

Rittel perceives design as an argument, which differs from the Simon’s logical theory of design. Since design is intentional, purposive, and goal seeking, it depends on reasoning. However, reasoning of design is not a formal or declarative logic as Simon suggests, rather it is a kind of ‘philosophy’ that aims at a mode of behavior. The behavior emerges as a process of argumentation. Designer makes a debate with himself and others; he comes up with issues and positions that are selected according to the search. In the end, the designer makes up his mind, and suggests solutions after several iterations. He finishes his argument suggesting a to-do-list for science of design: a theory of design to learn more about reasoning of designers, empirical inquiries to understand how plans come about, and tools for supporting the designers in their work. This approach is much more in line with rhetorical thinking.

Moholy Nagy perceives design as a productive science and an integrative art. He begins his argument by giving a dialectical historical background. It is followed by an analysis of design as a discipline by using the four questions of poetics; formal, material, efficient, and final causes. He highlights the importance of new materials and production techniques that helps the formal and functional causes to evolve and extend into new domains. Extension is not only restricted to the technological advances but also social implications as well. The profile of community of use has been changing due to the economy and technology. Designer in this sense should not only be sensitive to the technology, but also social and economical concerns.

Dieter Rams, in ‘Omit the Unimportant’ suggests a more rigorous attitude for the designer. The designer should exclude the unimportant in order to stress the important. Selection of ‘omitting’ suggests a necessity, which implies a dialectical approach. He describes the strong, aggressive, and colorful expression in a product that triggers an instantaneous emotional stimulus as the problem space, since this expression is a trivial one that does not help the item to communicate its use. In order to help the item communicate, he suggests two theses: The designer should design items whose function and attributes are directly understood, and thus allow the products to ‘talk ’ by means of design; Secondly, the less the design informs the user, the more it serves to evoke emotional responses. Without these two actions, the design is overwhelming and abuses the community of use.

Design from the rhetorical point of view consists of designer, product, and community of use. The commonality of Simon, Rittel, Nagy, and Rams is their focus on designer and the design process. Simon assumes everyone is a designer, and generalizes design as changing an existing situation into a preferred one. He proposes a formal logic for the designer’s reasoning and for the design process. Rittel, similar to Simon, perceives that everyone has the potential to be a designer, but they do not always use this potential. Rittel thinks that designer’s reasoning has logic beyond the formal logic that helps designer to make choices. Moholy Nagy sees the designer as an artist who uses formal, material, functional, and technical elements in his logic; in the mean time he is also sensitive to social and technological implications. Similar to Rittel, Moholy Nagy has a place for the intuition of designer that is beyond logic. Dieter Rams approaches designers by analyzing how they express functionalism in their design. Rather than evoking emotions explicitly, the designer should let product express its use. Among these writers with different attitudes, the commonality in their goal is to formalize and elaborate on design process. In doing this, they either chose to base their argument on the phenomenal world or the material one. In the end, their efforts on design theory help to shape design practice.