Designs are Cultural Alloys, ‘STeMPJE’ in Design Methodology

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.

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