Introduction ╌ Designing

Abstract

The object of this book is a new branch of science, namely Design Science. Why should this science be called “new,” when we have known for a long time that active persons have been designing, as we understand it today? Somebody always had to have a first idea for building a house, a cathedral, or a mill, and afterwards had to implement the idea and realize the object. Whether they were artists or craftsmen -- even in those days they solved the problems and successfully created outstanding works. In the manufacturing industries, designing has been formally acknowledged as a separate activity for at least 150 years. This happened during the industrial revolution, as the concept of division of labor was implemented in industrial organizations.

It is through knowledge that I gain understanding -- and understanding lets me do by choice what others do by constraint of fear. Aristotle

A little learning is a dang’rous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain; And drinking largely sobers us again. Alexander Pope