Design of the modern inquiring system—i. r. descartes (1596–1650)

Abstract

AbstractThe first installment of studies which will survey the thinking of ancient and contemporary philosophers for ideas on how to design the modern inquiring system is dedicated to René Descartes, in the year in which we are celebrating the 350th anniversary of the publication of his famous Discours de la Méthode.We begin our incursion into the design of inquiring systems by recalling that it is C. West Churchman who initiated this dialogue. We owe our inspiration to his pioneering work, The Design of Inquiring Systems [1]. In this book he sets the stage for our own study which consists of exploring the work of the great philosophers for clues on how to design the modern inquiring system. In his pioneering book, Churchman discussed the ideas of five philosophers, namely: Liebniz, Locke, Kant, Hegel and Singer. He proposed to incorporate the outstanding ideas of these thinkers in the design of modern inquiring systems. First, we will review the meaning of ‘inquiring system’ and will proceed, in future installments, to extend Churchman's work to other noteworthy philosophers and thinkers