Towards a Tangible Philosophy through Design

The combined philosophy and design approach called Philosophy-through-Design (PtD) is proposed using an exemplary project about being-in-the-world in the digital age. PtD is a practical way to do philosophy through designing interventions, and involves various people in the exploration of philosophical concepts. It stems from the overlapping questions found in philosophy and design regarding human-technology interaction. By intertwining both, they benefit from describing, understanding and proposing humantechnology interactions to unfold new questions and perspectives. In the exemplary project, being-in-the-world refers to a way of being that is embodied, active, open-ended and situational, based on the phenomenological and embodied theories of Tim Ingold. This concept questions what it means to be human in the digital age and how our lives with technology are built. The first results show the process of weaving together observation, creation and reflection, which presents Philosophy-through-Design as a promising method for designers to practice a tangible philosophy.

[1]  T. Ingold.  Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description , 2011 .

[2]  Stephan Wensveen,et al.  There is more in a single touch: mapping the continuous to the discrete , 2011, CHItaly.

[3]  L. Korpinen,et al.  Self‐report of physical symptoms associated with using mobile phones and other electrical devices , 2009, Bioelectromagnetics.

[4]  Wouter Eggink,et al.  Philosophy of Technology x Design: The Practical Turn , 2018 .

[5]  Jelle van Dijk,et al.  Scaffolds for design communication: Research through design of shared understanding in design meetings , 2013, Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing.

[6]  Victoria Hoban,et al.  The Reflective Practitioner , 2013 .

[7]  Paul Hekkert,et al.  Design for Socially Responsible Behavior: A Classification of Influence Based on Intended User Experience , 2011, Design Issues.

[8]  James D. Hollan,et al.  Distributed cognition: toward a new foundation for human-computer interaction research , 2000, TCHI.

[9]  William W. Gaver,et al.  Design: Cultural probes , 1999, INTR.

[10]  Adam L. Alter,et al.  Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked , 2017 .

[11]  Caroline Hummels,et al.  Matter of transformation: designing an alternative tomorrow inspired by phenomenology , 2013, INTR.

[12]  Michael Biggs.  Editorial: the role of the artefact in art and design research , 2002 .

[13]  J. Gibson.  The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception , 1979 .

[14]  Julia Anne Garde.  Everyone has a part to play: games and participatory design in healthcare , 2013 .

[15]  R. Scharff.  Empirical Technoscience Studies in a Comtean World: Too Much Concreteness? , 2011, Philosophy & Technology.

[16]  D. Dillon,et al.  Philosophy as a Way of Life , 1953 .

[17]  J. Elhai,et al.  Problematic smartphone use: A conceptual overview and systematic review of relations with anxiety and depression psychopathology. , 2017, Journal of affective disorders.

[18]  David Kirsh,et al.  Embodied cognition and the magical future of interaction design , 2013, TCHI.

[19]  Tracy Brown,et al.  The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience , 2002, Cybern. Hum. Knowing.

[20]  E. D. Paolo,et al.  Participatory sensemaking An enactive approach to social cognition , 2007 .

[21]  Philip A.E. Brey,et al.  Philosophy of Technology after the Empirical Turn , 2010 .

[22]  Thecla Schiphorst,et al.  Really, really small: the palpability of the invisible , 2007, C&C '07.

[23]  Aljohara A Alhassan,et al.  The relationship between addiction to smartphone usage and depression among adults: a cross sectional study , 2018, BMC Psychiatry.

[24]  Kristina Höök,et al.  Transferring qualities from horseback riding to design , 2010, NordiCHI.

[25]  S. Jung,et al.  The effect of smartphone usage time on posture and respiratory function , 2016, Journal of physical therapy science.

[26]  Caroline Hummels,et al.  Designing for Embodied Being-in-the-World: Two Cases, Seven Principles and One Framework , 2017, TEI.

[27]  G. Rubio,et al.  Cell-Phone Addiction: A Review , 2016, Front. Psychiatry.

[28]  P. Verbeek.  Accompanying Technology: Philosophy of Technology after the Ethical Turn , 2010 .

[29]  Caroline Hummels,et al.  Beyond distributed representation: embodied cognition design supporting socio-sensorimotor couplings , 2014, TEI '14.

[30]  Wouter Eggink,et al.  Product impact, tool workshop, mastering affect and effect in human-product relations , 2014 .

[31]  L. Winner.  Upon Opening the Black Box and Finding It Empty: Social Constructivism and the Philosophy of Technology , 1993 .

[32]  Ron Wakkary,et al.  An Annotated Portfolio on Doing Postphenomenology Through Research Products , 2018, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.

[33]  Lucy A. Suchman,et al.  Plans and Situated Actions: The Problem of Human-Machine Communication (Learning in Doing: Social, , 1987 .

[34]  P. Verbeek.  What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design , 2005 .

[35]  Jonathan A. Smith,et al.  Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis: Theory, Method and Research , 2009, QMiP Bulletin.

[36]  Joep Frens,et al.  To make is to grasp , 2013 .

[37]  J. Dewey.  The Need for a Recovery of Philosophy , 2011 .

[38]  Trygve Faste,et al.  DEMYSTIFYING “ DESIGN RESEARCH ” : DESIGN IS NOT RESEARCH , RESEARCH IS DESIGN , 2012 .

[39]  H. Achterhuis.  Introduction: American Philosophers of Technology. , 2001 .

[40]  Clay Spinuzzi,et al.  The Methodology of Participatory Design , 2005 .