Buchanan,+Richard.+Design+and+the+New+Rhetoric

=Buchanan, Richard. "Design and the New Rhetoric: Productive Arts in the Philosophy of Culture."= //Philosophy and Rhetoric//, Volume 34, Number 3, 2001, pp. 183-206. Online Resource.

Abstract
No abstract.

**Argument**
One of the central claims of the articles is that "products--digital and analog, tangible and intangible--are arguments about how we should live our lives" (194). Buchanan frames the argument around principles introduced by Richard McKeon in the Middle Ages. McKeon began to embrace the arts to draw intellectual influence from creative endeavors rather than traditional historical canons. Buchanan emphasizes the necessity to explore areas of technology, "where philosophy, science, and art have joined to bring about a revolution in human culture whose full significance we are far from understanding." He urges traditional rhetoricians to consider how technological innovations came to be, rather than focusing solely on the print associated. Buchanan realizes the importance of analyzing print within the realm of the technological world. Ground-breaking studies can expand the power of rhetorical focus.

Key Passages
"In essence, design offers a pathway for bringing theory— ideas about the nature of the world and how we should live our lives—into closer relationship with practical action and the creation of diverse kinds of products and experiences. Nonetheless, there are strong barriers to understanding the significance of design in the contemporary world."

"The increasing sophistication and vigor of the debate now attract scholars from other fields who have begun to recognize the cultural significance of design and its potential for framing new problems for inquiry, which could have not only theoretical importance but practical impact on how we lead our lives. The reason for this is not difficult to discover. As the exploration of design deepens, its connection to diverse bodies of knowledge grows more apparent and complex. The protracted debate in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century about whether design is a fine art or a science has given way to more sophisticated discussion about how design integrates knowledge and insight from many other disciplines—the fine arts, the humanities, the social and behavioral sciences, and engineering and the natural sciences—in order to accomplish its work."

"Rhetorical and philosophical studies of the pluralism of design thinking would be a significant contribution to further development of design and to its understanding among people outside the field. The pluralism of philosophies of design is one reason that the nature of design as a discipline has remained ambiguous throughout the twentieth century. Nonetheless, there has been a gradual convergence of design thinking around the designer’s responsibility to the human beings who use their products—to what we sometimes call the 'community of use' in order to emphasize the humanism that is missing in terms such as 'user' and 'consumer.' There are, of course, sharply different ideas about what these responsibilities are and how they may be best fulfilled. But the focus on human beings again suggests how rhetorical themes have entered design in theory and practice."

Selected Works Cited
Booth, Wayne C. 1970. “The Rhetorical Stance.” In //Now Don’t Try to Reason with Me.// Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Borgmann, Albert. 1984. //Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: A Philo////sophical Inquiry.//Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Buchanan, Richard. 1998. “Branzi’s Dilemma: Design in Contemporary Culture.” //Design// //Issues,// vol. 14, no. 1. ———. 1989. “Declaration by Design: Rhetoric, Argument, and Demonstration in Design Practice.” In //Design Discourse: History, Theory, Criticism,// ed. Victor Margolin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ———. 2000. “Design Research and the New Learning.” In //Researching Design: Designing// //Research,// ed. Jonathan M. Woodham. London: London Design Council. ———. 1995. “Rhetoric, Humanism, and Design.” In //Discovering Design: Explorations in Design Studies,// eds. Richard Buchanan and Victor Margolin. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ———. 1995. “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking.” In //The Idea of Design,// eds. Victor Margolin and Richard Buchanan. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. Buckley, Michael J., S. J. 1971. //Motion and Motion’s God//. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Bugiarello, George, and Dean B. Doner, eds. 1979. //The History and Philosophy of Technol////ogy.// Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Conley, Thomas M. 1990. //Rhetoric in the European Tradition//. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Dewey, John. 1958. //Art as Experience.// New York: Capricorn Books. ———. 1938. //Logic: The Theory of Inquiry.// New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ———. 1946. //Philosophy of Education.// Rpt., Totowa, NJ: Littlefield, Adams, 1958. Fleming, David. 1998 (summer). “Design Talk: Constructing the Object in Studio Conversation.” //Design Issues//, vol. 14. Forty, Adrian. 1986. //Objects of Desire: Design and Society from Wedgwood to IBM.// New York: Pantheon. Kaufer, David S., and Brian S. Butler. 1996. //Rhetoric and the Arts of Design//. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Lanham, Richard A. 1993. //The Electronic Word: Democracy, Technology, and the Arts//. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. McCullough, Malcolm. 1996. //Abstracting Craft: The Practiced Digital Hand//. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. McKeon, Richard. 1987. //Rhetoric: Essays in Invention and Discovery.// Ed. Mark Backman. Woodbridge, CT: Ox Bow Press.DESIGN AND THE NEW RHETORIC Miller, Carolyn R. 1990. “The Rhetoric of Decision Science, or Herbert A. Simon Says.” In //The Rhetorical Turn: Invention and Persuasion in the Conduct of Inquiry,// ed. Herbert W. Simon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Mitcham, Carl. 1994. //Thinking Through Technology: The Path Between Engineering and Philosophy.// Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Sanders, Elizabeth B.-N. 1992 (fall). “Converging Perspectives: Product Development Re- search for the 1990s.” //Design Management Journal.// Simon, Herbert A. 1969. //The Sciences of the Artificial//. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. Woodham, Jonathan M. 1997. //Twentieth-Century Design.// Oxford: Oxford University Press.