Philosophy of and in Design

On the Importance of Prepositions for the Future of Design Philosophy

Philosophers love to tell others what to do and what to think. Philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and even philosophy of design—in these and other instances, philosophy stands outside of a practice in order to conceptualize, direct, or otherwise ground it. The preposition “of” tells the story of philosophy’s (transcendent) relation to what it theorizes: it remains at a distance from its objects of contemplation. But what if practices generated their own philosophical content? Indeed, what if philosophy was already “in” design, architecture, fashion, etc., it just needed to brought out, nourished, and cultivated? In this talk, that’s precisely what I will argue: that the designed world is already philosophical, and that it’s always given expression to philosophical propositions—vis-à-vis how one might live, who or what should be included/excluded, and so on. What’s at stake, however, is ensuring that those expressions are ethically and politically just. 

Adam Nocek is Associate Professor in the Philosophy of Technology and Founding Director of the Center for Philosophical Technologies at Arizona State University. He has published widely on the philosophy of science and design, speculative philosophy, and critical and speculative theories of architecture and computational media. Nocek’s last sole-authored book is titled, Molecular Capture: The Animation of Biology (University of Minnesota Press). And with Tony Fry, he is the editor of Design in Crisis: New Practices, World, and Philosophies (Routledge), along with numerous other special issues and edited collections. Nocek holds or has held visiting professorships and appointments at the University of Warsaw, the University of Amsterdam, Creighton University School of Medicine, and the University of Chicago. In 2024 he is a visiting professor in the Design Department at Politecnico di Milano.