Philosophy by Donald Norman - Essay Example

? Answers to Questions Table of Contents I. Donald Norman 3 II. Philosophy 5 III. Being a Salesman 9 References 12 I. Donald Norman The shift from phenomenology to experienceology is really, in one sense, a shift away from objectivity and towards subjectivity. On the one hand, there is the objectivity that is implicit in the positivist approach, the logical rigor of it, the exactness, the positivist orientation. On the other hand, there is the experience, subjective, and when used as a means to comprehend the world, ultimately confined to the one experiencing by way of validating the truth and exactness of the thing being experienced. The latter is viewed as being after positivism, or what comes after the world has had enough time to see the fruits of that positivist approach to reality and to going about life in general. On the other hand, when we look at phenomenology more closely, and examine the ways in which the discipline takes in experience as its central reality, we begin to see that the distinctions being made by Donald Norman relating to a shift away from hard science and towards experience-based thinking has deep philosophical foundations. In a way one can argue that what Norman is trying to accomplish, by a focus on experience, is really not that far removed from what has already been well-explored in the phenomenological literature, in its constructs and in its taking subjectivity or the first person perspective as the cornerstone of all of its philosophizing and its assumptions about what constitutes reality. The mechanics of consciousness as something that is directed towards things, and have for their foundation an intricate link with ontology. The latter has to do with not just the stuff that makes an experience an experience, but also with the beingness of the experience. There is the sense of phenomenology being analytical in its orientation, a process of sifting through what happened from the lens of prior experience, and putting the experience in general in particular known contexts. The shift towards experienceology, therefore, in one sense, is not a shift away from rigor, but that phenomenological approaches in general can be said to be just as rigorous, and just as well-explored, with sufficient integrity and rigor to be on par with more outward-directed, scientific positivist approaches, Moreover, on rigor, one can see that developments in phenomenological approaches have come to see how the physical and biological sciences, among other hard sciences, can be married successfully with phenomenological approaches. Such is the case with approaches that tie human neurology and psychology with the consciousness and general phenomenological studies. To put it simply, with the progress in the philosophy of experience and the wealth of on-going philosophizing on phenomenological approaches, experienceology can be said to stand on solid ground, on equal if not superior footing to positivist approaches (Smith, 2008). There is a case to be made therefore for considering Norman's move away from what he sees as a strictly scientific and positivist approach to reality and to living life as really not a degradation but rather an improvement. In a way, looking at the depth of the phenomenological philosophical approaches and the literature tied to that, one can say that the latter is more encompassing and more exhaustive in its regard for reality, not limiting that reality lens to a narrow focus on external laws and realities, but takes in subjective experience too, as a valid input, and in fact the central input in philosophical discourse. As such too, the shift by Norman can be construed as a shift towards a more natural way of living life, taking off as it does from natural subjective experience, and finding sufficient ground to establish a rigorous philosophical foundation on which to support that way of viewing and living life. It is essential and in many ways personal and more easily verified in some ways, closer to our experience of who we are (Smith, 20008; Bourdeau, 2011): Furthermore, in a different dimension, we find various grounds or enabling conditions — conditions of the possibility — of intentionality, including embodiment, bodily skills, cultural context, language and other social practices, social background, and contextual aspects of intentional activities. Thus, phenomenology leads from conscious experience into conditions that help to give experience its intentionality...Cultural conditions thus seem closer to our experience and to our familiar self-understanding than do the electrochemical workings of our brain, much less our dependence on quantum-mechanical states of physical systems to which we may belong. The cautious thing to say is that phenomenology leads in some ways into at least some background conditions of our experience (Smith, 2008) II. Philosophy I think philosophy is sometimes difficult, but necessary in order to understand who we are, why we do the things we do, why we are here, and where we are going. True there are those who are able to seemingly live without philosophy, but nevertheless benefit from the insights of philosophy with regard to how those insights shaped and formed the very societies that they live in. Philosophy is about discerning the nature of things and how best to live life, in a way, and the insights into such inquiries inform the way our governments our formed, the way our societies place value on the academic disciplines that matter to our daily lives, and shape even the way we relate to each other and enjoy our rights. They inform our justice system, how we keep social order, and how we punish and reward people. Philosophy organizes our legal system and benefits it with the wisdom of the collective philosophical musings reflected in legal decisions and laws handed to us from many generations of being exposed to human affairs. Philosophy and the insights from our philosophical giants inform the way we trade with each other, the way we organize commerce, and the way we relate with our neighboring states. Philosophy also reflects in a very profound way how we view the world and our place in the grand scheme of things, and in this sense is not very far removed from our deepest religious convictions and experience of the divine. Philosophy informs our understanding of consciousness and how and why we experience what we experience in the world too. The hard sciences, from biology to physics, as well as the soft sciences, such as psychology, also all benefit from and are informed by our philosophical views. One can say that philosophy is implicit in the way we comprehend the world and act in it, as individuals and as societies, and what we regard as a hard and ethereal endeavor is just the conscious attention placed on what is essential and not at all removed from life. It is woven into life as we know it, down to the very way we comprehend how we comprehend the world, to our every perception of the outside world and the inner workings of our individual consciousness (Bourdeau, 2011; Smith, 2008; Leiter, 2012; Green, 2003; Yount, 2010). The link between popular culture and philosophy is very easily established, once it is clear that philosophy is not far removed from daily life, but rather informs the nuts and bolts of daily life. Popular culture too, being derived from daily life, has the same undergirding as philosophy. To put it another way, philosophy shapes how we manufacture and consume popular culture. Popular culture is not removed from culture, but can be seen as something that is an intrinsic part of culture too. Philosophy is not removed from the iPod or the Simpsons, but rather that philosophy shapes both, and makes both possible in a society where even culture is a product of, benefits from, the sometimes unsaid philosophical assumptions that give birth to them. Taking a step back, marrying philosophy and popular culture is an excellent way to show just how relevant philosophy is, not as something added to life, but something that can be seen as foundational and indispensable. Any Simpson's episode can be better understood for instance if one relates the popularity of the cartoon series with how the characters' views of the world resonates with the world views of those who watch it. Implied in the very conception of the show is a way of viewing subjective experience, for instance, and how we view consciousness and its relation to our every thought. The hodgepodge of elements from daily life that the Simpsons choose to highlight in different episodes can be better understood from the vantage point of philosophy shaping how they choose what they choose to show. It is something intrinsic to the way the show creators think, and how those thoughts reflect the thoughts of those who love the series as well. Even the most crass aspects of popular culture, such as the stuff in tabloids, is not removed from philosophy at all, bur can be seen from various philosophical perspectives, including how they deviate from our conceptions of what is real, and our conceptions of what aspects of social life are important and what aspects are trivial. Because philosophy is concerned with these most fundamental and also the most banal aspects of human experience, it is not removed from popular culture at all. It is woven into its very nuts and bolts (Bourdeau, 2011; Smith, 2008; Leiter, 2012; Green, 2003; Yount, 2010). III. Being a Salesman Marshall McLuhan is essentially saying that media is construed, and operates, in a certain way. If one is to compare it to the wild, it has its own laws, or it is a beast with its own particular ways of behaving, ways of eating, ways of sleeping and reproducing. To think of media as being malleable is not in line with this vision at all. When McLuhan stated that the medium is the message, he is essentially positing the view that media is what it is, and has its own unique characteristics. No matter what you put in, the fact that you are a participant in media, the very fact that you present anything in media at all, means that you are subject to its rules, It will shape your message and put a stamp to that message, so that it is viewed in a certain way. The medium is the message means that. The fact that you are in a media conveying anything via the various media forms imply that you are saying something that is tainted with the particular characteristics of media. With regard to the evolution of media as a vehicle for promoting and selling products and services, this means that all media messages have that implied mark of the message having a marketing slant. The message is a vehicle for a marketing message, with an implied invitation to buy something. It can be said that McLuhan did not specifically point to marketing and the implication of marketing/selling in all media messages as a defining characteristic of media, but that as things have evolved that has become the reality. What the initial passage says is that focusing on this as a defining characteristic of media, the fact that one is conveying anything via media at all means to try to sell something, and therefore it is best to focus on making money. The thinking implied here is that since the assumption is that all media messages are money-making messages, the practical thing to do is to ride the wave and make money from media (Federman, 2004). The second statement flows from the analysis above. The statement has made the assumption that social media is not divorced from traditional media, but is a form of media with the same operative rules and the same characteristics/dynamics as the old media- TV, print. This being the case, as in the old media, all social media messages are likewise marketing messages, and have the implied characteristic as enticing a sale, or promoting a sale of a product or service. This is not to say that this is in fact the reality. What the statement implies is that from the perspective of a sales person or a marketing person, this is the reality. This is akin to saying that since I have a hammer, then everything that I see before me are nails that need to be either hammered to or uprooted from their places. This says nothing about whether McLuhan agrees with this view of reality and of media in particular, but does say something about McLuhan saying that the medium is the message. If social media is indeed just another form of media in the traditional conception, then McLuhan says that it comes with a certain baggage. The marketing people then extend that idea to say that part of that baggage is the implied sales pitch in all messages in all kinds of media, social media included. That means, for instance, that all status posts in Facebook, according to this world view, are messages from people who are ultimately out to close a sale, and make a buck. In the end this is a cynical view of social media, but this is beside the point. This is not the point of the two statements being considered here. They do not weigh in on the morality or the ethics of construing media messages in this way. Nor does it mean that social media is indeed like this, and that all social media messages are indeed marketing messages. What the marketing people are saying is that it can be viewed this way, and for practical purposes, for intentions tied to making money, this view works (Federman, 2004). References Bourdeau, M. (2011). Auguste Comte. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/comte/ Federman, M. (2004). What is the Meaning of the Medium is the Message? McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology. Retrieved from http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm Green, L. (2003). Legal Positivism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/legal-positivism/ Leiter, B. (2012). Naturalism in Legal Philosophy. Stanford Encyclopedia of Natural Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lawphil-naturalism/ Smith, D. W. (2008). Phenomenology. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/ Yount, D. (2010). The Importance of Philosophy or “Why Should I Take Philosophy?”. Mesa Community College. Retrieved from http://www.mesacc.edu/~davpy35701/text/importofphil.html Read More