Harold G. Nelson

Humans did not discover fire. They designed it. Nor, did they discover the wheel, or democracy, or hierarchical organizations; each is the consequence of design activity. Design is the creation of something that has not yet existed, not of finding something already in existence as is implied by the ubiquitous term discovery. Leonardo da Vinci was not a bi-polar artisan; sometimes a scientist and sometimes an artist. He was in actuality a designer. The deferral to discovery, rather than human intention, as the genesis of the created modern world; the default to technical rationality or artistic expression in world creators rather than ‘practical’ design judgment, is a consequence of the emergent dominant form of thinking in the Western world. These approaches that have objectified life in a predominantly descriptive and explanative mode may be useful, but are insufficient. More is needed for dealing with the discernment of the complexity and dynamic nature of the world.