Knowledge, Design And Technology: A Reflection On Conceptions Of Hume, Kant And Foucault

This article presents a philosophical reflection on the ways of approaching knowledge in Design and Technology, in particular with respect to the different interpretations about the relation between thinking and doing. The goal is not to propose epistemological principles or categories; instead, it is a matter of making explicit the variety (and even the dispersion) of possible interpretations on this subject that can improve dialogues and debates linked to the development of society. After presenting the subject in question, the Literature Review delineates the bias from which the production of knowledge is envisaged. Following, the article points to three statements that are recurrent in the academic discourse as much as in the non academic sphere of Design, establishes this discourse as assessing criterion and relates the utterances with three distinct philosophical conceptions of knowledge established by Hume, Kant, and Foucault. From this relation, finally, this paper presents the provisional proposal that the own way of facing the knowledge is what makes each type of knowledge particularly relevant.