(Editors note. This introduction to his forthcoming book was submitted by Andrew at the Reformational Colloquium (Oct 06) at WYSOCS.  To read more of Andrew's work on Dooyeweerd go to his website here .)

BOOK 'PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORKS FOR
UNDERSTANDING INFORMATION SYSTEMS'

Early 1990s, I found Dooyeweerd's aspects useful in helping me think about 'benefits' and 'detriment' of using computers, including diverse, indirect, unexpected repercussions.  Likewise I found them useful in understanding environmental sustainability.  Then I found his aspects aligned nicely with a levelled notion of what a computer is.  Then I found that the normativity of aspects helped guide the design and development of information systems.  As a bonus Dooyeweerd shared my Christian faith, and affirmed my 'lifeworld' approach that brings theory and practice together.

So I began to publish papers recommending Dooyeweerd as a way of understanding or guiding various areas in I.S.  Then I realised that they all form a coherence 'whole story'.  I came to believe that Dooyeweerd provides a more useful underpinning to at least five areas of research and practice in I.S., than do other philosophies.  I was given study leave to help sort out my thoughts, and wrote a book 'Philosophical Frameworks for Understanding Information Systems', and now am preparing it for a publisher, Idea Group Inc, for publication in 2007.  The areas are:

      a)   Usage of computers in human living
      b)   "What is a computer?" (Can it truly think, understand, etc.?)
      c)   Design and development of information systems for human living
      d)   The shaping of types of information technology
      e)   Societal issues: the impact IT has on the way we live and do business, and how the shape IT has     is affected by our world views.

I find different portions of Dooyeweerd's philosophy useful in each:

      a)   Human activity as multi-aspectual functioning that has diverse
            repercussions
      b)   Dooyeweerd's theory of entities as multi-layered, and Being arising
            from Meaning so it is correct to say both "The computer discovered
            a molybdenum deposit" and "John used the computer to discover a
            molybdenum deposit" - but in different ways.
      c)   The normativity of the aspects can guide development.
      d)   That each aspect is a way of being, functioning, law, relating, etc.
            provides guidance for the shape of information technology.
      e)   Dooyeweerd's notion of correlative enkapsis helps us understand the
            circular relationship; and his belief that all has a religious root explains the 'idolatry of     computers'.

I have tried in my book to link Dooyeweerd's ideas with those of extant thinkers in each area, not as antithetical to them so much as affirming and enriching them.  I explained this approach at PR 2005 and in a paper to be published in Philosophia Reformata in 2007.

Andrew Basden
26 October 2006.