CONTENTS
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PREFACE
Vignette 1 1
Vignette 2 2
Vignette 3 2
Vignette 4 3
Vignette 5 4
Philosophical Frameworks For Understanding 5
Purpose of This Work 5
The Chapters 6
References 8
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION
1.1 INFORMATION SYSTEMS: WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO UNDERSTAND? 2
1.1.1 Areas of Research and Practice is IS, ICT 2
1.1.2 Problems and Issues in IS, ICT 4
1.2 UNDERSTANDING 4
1.2.1 Problems with Theoretical Frameworks 5
1.2.2 Lifeworld-Oriented Frameworks for Understanding 6
1.3 FRAMEWORKS 7
1.3.1 Frameworks in Each Area 8
1.3.2 Issues that Constitute Frameworks for Understanding 8
1.3.4 Characteristics of Frameworks 9
1.3.5 A Single Unitary Framework? 10
1.4 PHILOSOPHY 10
1.4.1 Philosophy: a Sketch 11
1.4.2 Roles of Philosophy in Information Systems 12
1.4.3 Philosophical Issues in IS, ICT 15
1.4.4 What we need in Philosophy 15
1.4.5 Dooyeweerd's Philosophy 16
1.5 OUR APPROACH 17
FOOTNOTES 18
References 18
CCHAPTER 2 - OVERVIEW OF DOOYEWEERD'S PHILOSOPHY
2.1 DOOYEWEERD'S APPROACH TO PHILOSOPHY 1
2.2 DOOYEWEERD'S CRITICAL APPROACH 1
2.2.1 Dooyeweerd's Immanent Critique 2
2.2.2 Dooyeweerd's Transcendental Critiques 3
2.3 THE RELIGIOUS ROOT OF PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT 3
2.3.1 Ground-Motives 4
2.3.1.1 The Form-Matter Ground-Motive (FMGM) 4
2.3.1.2 The Creation-Fall-Redemption Ground-Motive (CFR) 5
2.3.1.3 The Nature-Grace Ground-Motive (NGGM) 5
2.3.1.4 The Nature-Freedom Ground-Motive (NFGM) 6
2.3.2 Effect of Ground-Motives on Understanding Information Systems 7
2.3.3 Immanence-Standpoint 7
2.3.4 Transcendence Standpoint 9
2.4 THE DIFFERENT FLAVOUR OF DOOYEWEERD'S APPROACH 9
2.4.1 Starting Point 1: Religious Root and Destiny of IS 10
2.4.2 Starting Point 2: Everyday Experience 12
2.4.3 Being as Meaning 13
2.4.4 Law and Subject Sides 14
2.4.5 Escaping Descartes and Kant 15
References 17
CHAPTER 3 - SOME PORTIONS OF DOOYEWEERD'S POSITIVE PHILOSOPHY
3.1 DOOYEWEERD'S THEORY OF MODAL ASPECTS 1
3.1.1 Dooyeweerd's Suite of Aspects 1
3.1.2 Other Recognition of Aspects 4
3.1.3 More than Categories 5
3.1.4 Characteristics of Aspects 6
3.1.5 Philosophical Roles of the Aspects 10
3.1.6 How Aspects May be Delineated 12
3.2 THINGS 13
3.2.1 Everyday Experience of Things 14
3.2.2 Some Problems with Extant Approaches 14
3.2.3 Dooyeweerd's Approach 15
3.2.4 Becoming and Change 16
3.2.5 Types of Things 17
3.2.6 Relationships 18
3.2.6.1 Functional Relations 18
3.2.6.2 Structural Relations 19
3.3 EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE AND ASSUMPTIONS 20
3.3.1 The Knower-Known Relationship 20
3.3.2 Objectivism and Relativism 22
3.3.3 Critical Realism 22
3.3.4 Intuition 23
3.3.5 Analytical and Theoretical Knowing 24
3.3.6 Levels of Abstraction 24
3.3.7 Science and Philosophy 25
3.3.8 Paradigms, Perspectives and Presuppositions 27
3.4 HUMAN LIFE 28
3.4.1 The Human Person 28
3.4.2 Multi-aspectual Human Functioning 29
3.4.3 The Shalom Principle 30
3.4.4 Brief Comparison with Extant Views of Ethics 31
3.4.5 Everyday Life: The Lifeworld 32
3.5 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 33
References 33
CHAPTER 4 - A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING HUMAN USE OF COMPUTERS
4.1 TOWARDS AN EVERYDAY UNDERSTANDING OF IS USAGE 1
4.1.1 A Major IS Failure 1
4.1.2 Unexpected Impacts 2
4.1.3 The Case of Elsie: A Small Success? 2
4.2 COMPUTER USE AS MULTI-ASPECTUAL HUMAN FUNCTIONING 5
4.2.1 Aspectual Analysis of Computer Use 5
4.2.2 Interwoven Multi-aspectual Functionings 7
4.2.3 Aspectual Analysis of HCI, ERC, HLC 8
4.2.4 The Nature of HCI, ERC, HLC 9
4.2.5 Qualifying Aspects 10
4.2.5.1 On identifying qualifying aspects 11
4.2.6 Benefits of Understanding Types of Multi-aspectual Functioning 12
4.3 THE STRUCTURE OF HUMAN-COMPUTER RELATIONSHIPS 12
4.3.1 Structure of HCI: Law-Subject-Object and Gegenstand Relations 13
4.3.1.1 Aspectual Subject-Object Relations 13
4.3.1.2 Distal and proximal 15
4.3.2 The Structure of ERC: Aspectual Reaching-out 16
4.3.3 The Structure of HLC: Aspectual Repercussions 17
4.3.3.1 Diversity of repercussions 18
4.3.3.2 Unexpected, unanticipated impacts 19
4.3.3.3 Indirect, long-term impacts 19
4.3.3.4 Overview 20
4.4 THE NORMATIVITY OF COMPUTER USE 20
4.4.1 Normativity of HCI: Usability 21
4.4.2 Normativity in ERC: Justice to (Virtual) World 22
4.4.3 Normativity in HLC: Shalom 23
4.4.3.1 The ethical aspect of self-giving 24
4.5 PRACTICAL DEVICES 25
4.5.1 Aspectual Analysis 25
4.5.2 Aspects as Checklist: Guidelines for UI 25
4.5.3 The Aspect Tree: Evaluating Computer Use 27
4.6 RELATING TO EXTANT FRAMEWORKS 29
4.6.1 Approaches Centring on Limited Aspects 29
4.6.2 'Making a World of Difference' 29
4.6.2.1 General Critique 30
4.6.2.2 Two Cases 31
4.6.2.3 Critique Arising from Cases 32
4.6.2.4 Too easily satisfied 32
4.6.2.5 Distortion of the pictures 33
4.6.2.6 Enriching Walsham's Basket of Tools 33
4.6.3 Winograd and Flores 34
4.6.3.1 Problems in Winograd and Flores 35
4.6.3.2 A Dooyeweerdian view 36
4.7 CONCLUSION 37
References 38
CHAPTER 5 - A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING COMPUTERS AND INFORMATION
5.1 WHAT IS MEANT BY THE NATURE OF COMPUTERS 1
5.1.1 Philosophical Understanding of the Nature of Things 2
5.1.2 Some Issues 2
5.1.3 The Need for Dooyeweerd's Approach 4
5.2 A DOOYEWEERDIAN APPROACH TO THE NATURE OF COMPUTERS 5
5.2.1 In Relation to Human Beings 5
5.2.2 Human Experience of the Computer as a Whole 6
5.2.3 The Innards 7
5.2.4 Excursus: Reinterpreting the Biotic-Organic Aspect 8
5.2.5 Aspectual Beings that Constitute the Computer 9
5.2.6 Analog Computers 10
5.2.7 Meaningful Wholes 11
5.2.8 Relationships Among Things in a Computer 11
5.2.8.1 Relationships between beings within an aspect 11
5.2.8.2 Relationships between beings of different aspects 11
5.2.9 Implementation 12
5.3 INFORMATION AND PROGRAM 13
5.3.1 A Dooyeweerdian Understanding of Data, Information and Knowledge 13
5.3.1.2 Long-term digital preservation 15
5.3.1.3 Virtual beings 15
5.3.2 Program and Software 16
5.3.2.1 Program as law side 16
5.3.2.2 Program as performance art 17
5.4 NEWELL'S LEVELLED UNDERSTANDING OF COMPUTERS 19
5.4.1 Ways of Understanding Computers 19
5.4.2 Newell's Levels 19
5.4.3 A Philosophical Analysis of Newell's Proposal for Levels 21
5.4.4 Level-aspect Correspondences 23
5.4.5 Enriching Newell's Notion of Levels 24
5.4.6 Some Practical Implications of Aspectual Levels 24
5.5 COMPUTERS AND HUMAN BEINGS 25
5.5.1 Determined and Non-Determined Behaviour 25
5.5.2 The Chinese Room 26
5.5.3 The Debate 27
5.5.4 A Critique of the Debate 28
5.5.5 Towards a Resolution 28
5.5.6 Subject- and Object-Functioning 29
5.5.7 A Fresh Look into the Chinese Room 30
5.5.8 Cyberspace and Bodiless Reality 31
5.5.9 On Comparing Computer to the Human Self 32
5.5.10 Ideology in AI 32
5.6 CONCLUSION 34
References 35
CHAPTER 6 - A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
6.1 APPROACHES TO ISD 1
6.1.1 Brief History of ISD 1
6.1.2 ISD Paradigms 2
6.1.2.1 Systems Approaches 2
6.1.2.2 Direct use of Burrell and Morgan 3
6.1.3 Practical Critique of Paradigms 4
6.1.4 Philosophical Critique of the Paradigms 5
6.1.5 Towards a Different Framework for Understanding 6
6.2 ISD AS MULTI-ASPECTUAL HUMAN ACTIVITY 6
6.2.1 Several Multi-aspectual Functionings 7
6.3 ASPECTS OF OVERALL ISD PROCESS 7
6.3.1 The Social Aspect 7
6.3.2 Pre-social aspects 8
6.3.3 Post-social aspects 9
6.3.4 Aspectually-centred Perspectives 10
6.3.5 All Aspects Together 10
6.4 ANTICIPATING USE 12
6.5 ASPECTS OF CREATING THE IS 14
6.5.1 Aspects of Creating the IS 14
6.5.2 The 'Chores' of Creating the IS 15
6.5.3 The Delight that is Creating IS 16
6.6 KNOWLEDGE ELICITATION AND REPRESENTATION 16
6.6.1 Doing Justice to Domain Meaning 17
6.6.2 Virtual Reality 18
6.6.3 Everyday Experience and Understanding 18
6.6.4 Tacit and Explicit Knowledge 19
6.6.5 Limits to Knowing 20
6.7 PRACTICAL DEVICES 20
6.7.1 Aspectual Analysis 20
6.7.2 Multi-Aspectual Knowledge Elicitation: MAKE 20
6.7.3 Characteristics of MAKE 22
6.8 ENRICHING SSM 22
6.9 CONCLUSION 24
References 26
CHAPTER 7 - A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES
7.1 INFLUENCES ON DESIGN 1
7.1.1 'KR to the People' 3
7.1.2 Appropriateness 3
7.1.3 Extant KR Languages 4
7.2 SEMI-MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS 5
7.2.1 The Notion of Semi-Manufactured Products 5
7.2.2 The Creation of the Artefact 6
7.2.3 Problems of Missing Aspects 7
7.3 ASPECTUAL DESIGN OF TECHNOLOGICAL BUILDING BLOCKS 9
7.3.1 Philosophical Roles of Aspects to Indicate Primitives and Tokens 9
7.3.2 A Practical Proposal: Aspectual Modules 10
7.3.3 Implementation at the Bit Level 14
7.4 INTEGRATION 15
7.4.1 Foundational Inter-aspect Dependency 15
7.4.2 Anticipatory Inter-Aspect Dependency 16
7.4.3 Inter-Aspect Analogy 17
7.4.4 Implementing Aspectual Reach-out 18
7.4.5 Reflection 18
7.5 RELATING TO EXTANT DISCOURSE 19
7.5.1 Dooyeweerdian Critique of Extant Data Models 19
7.5.1.1 The Relational Data Model 19
7.5.1.2 Object- and Subject-Orientation 20
7.5.1.3 The Wand-Weber Ontology 22
7.5.1.4 Reflection 24
7.5.2 Dooyeweerd and Alexander 25
7.5.2.1 Alexander's Vision 25
7.5.2.2 Design Patterns in information systems design 26
7.5.2.3 Dooyeweerdian analysis of Design Patterns 26
7.6 CONCLUSION 29
7.6.1 Overview of Framework for Understanding 29
7.6.2 The Mission of Bringing Information Technologies into Being 31
References 31
CHAPTER 8 - A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS ECOLOGY
8.1 ON THE VALIDITY AND DESTINY ICT 1
8.1.1 Dooyeweerd's Theory of Time, Destiny and Progress 2
8.1.2 Schuurman's 'Liberating Vision for Technology' 3
8.1.3 Disruption of the Vision 4
8.1.4 Implications of Schuurman's Vision 5
8.2 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS ECOLOGY 6
8.2.1 Correlative Enkapsis and Umwelt 6
8.2.2 ICT as Umwelt 7
8.2.3 Technological Determinism versus Social Shaping of Technology 8
8.2.4 The Nature of Both Relationships 8
8.2.5 Practical Device: Aspectual Analysis of the Circular Relationship 9
8.3 ABSOLUTIZATION AND IDOLATRY IN ICT 10
8.3.1 Critique of 'Masculine' Technology 11
8.3.1.1 A Dooyeweerdian View 12
8.3.2 Critique of Western Technology 13
8.3.3 Reflections on the Two Critiques 15
8.3.4 Idolatry of Technology 15
8.3.5 Overcoming Religious Dysfunction 17
8.4 CONCLUSION 18
8.4.1 Overview of Framework for Understanding 18
8.4.2 The Challenge 20
References 20
CHAPTER 9 - REFLECTIONS
9.1 OVERVIEW OF THE FRAMEWORKS 1
9.1.1 Framework for Understanding Human Use of Computers 1
9.1.2 Framework for Understanding the Nature of Computers 2
9.1.3 Framework for Understanding IS Development 2
9.1.4 Framework for Understanding Information Technologies 3
9.1.5 Framework for Understanding IT as Ecology 4
9.1.6 Understanding the Whole Story 5
9.2 ON USING DOOYEWEERD 6
9.2.1 On Using Dooyeweerd in Understanding Human Use of Computers 6
9.2.2 On Using Dooyeweerd in Understanding the Nature of Computers 7
9.2.3 On Using Dooyeweerd in Understanding IS Development 8
9.2.4 On Using Dooyeweerd in Understanding Information Technologies 9
9.2.5 On Using Dooyeweerd in Understanding IT as Ecology 9
9.2.6 On Using Dooyeweerd in Understanding the Whole Story 10
9.2.7 Portions of Dooyeweerd Found Useful 10
9.2.8 Developing Dooyeweerd? 11
9.2.8.1 Contributions to Dooyeweerd's Theory of Aspects 11
9.2.8.2 Contributions to Dooyeweerd's Theory of Things 12
9.3 REFLECTIONS ON THE FRAMEWORKS 12
9.3.1 On Multiple Frameworks and a Single Philosophy 12
9.3.2 Characteristics of the Frameworks 13
9.3.3 Constitution of the Frameworks 14
9.3.4 Compatibility of Areas with Dooyeweerd 15
9.4 REFLECTIONS ON THE PROCESS 15
9.4.1 Filling Slots? 15
9.4.2 Other Aspects, Areas, Philosophies? 16
9.4.3 The Effect of Dooyeweerd's 'Christian' Philosophy 17
9.4.4 Contributions of the Exercise 18
9.4.5 Limitations of the Exercise 19
9.5 THE FUTURE 20
References 20