Abstract

YNOUB, Roxana. Epistemología y metodología en y de la investigación en Diseño. Cuad. Cent. Estud. Diseñ. Comun., Ensayos [online]. 2020, n.82, pp.17-31. ISSN 1853-3523.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18682/cdc.vi82.3711.

The objective of this paper is to contribute some elements of judgement to the debate on the pertinence of epistemology and research methodology in the field of design. It begins by defining the scope of epistemology as a discipline which reflects on the conditions for the production and validation of scientific knowledge. Then, the distinctive traits that knowledge adopts in the field of design are examined, thus arriving at its definition as a knowledge centered on the projection of intended objects. It is proposed that this distinctive trait brings forth issues which have been problematic in classical epistemology, particularly because it relates factual questions (“what something is” or “what something is like”) with questions involving values (“what something should be” or “what is desirable”). According to the positivist tradition, modal statements or statements that contain value judgements may not be derived from factual statements. It is proposed, in consequence, that design be examined as a “praxis” (i.e. a social practice) in order to review its epistemological foundations. It is postulated that this perspective overcomes the alleged antagonism between the factual order and that of value judgements, by including in the approach the complexity of the vital and social experience in which the practice of design takes place. From this perspective, the various analytical dimensions with which this complexity may be approached are identified, as well as the fields of academic research and disciplines associated with each of those dimensions. Finally, the consequences of this model for the delimitation of research topics in the field of design are examined.

Keywords : epistemology; research methodology; design; praxis..

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