A Progression of Ideals

It may come as a surprise to most people but scientists do not study the things in the world, they study idealizations of them. This is a very Platonic approach and even more surprising when one considered the fact that modern scientists probably see themselves more as the children of Aristotle than as the children of Plato.

Galileo introduced the idea of studying idealizations into physics. If you take an introductory class in physics you will learn about ideal springs, frictionless inclined planes, and free fall in a vacuum.  These are all idealizations.

Max Weber introduced the concept of ideal types into social science. He said there is no such thing as a bureaucracy, but we study this idealization because it has greater value in advancing our knowledge.

In information in particular and areas of technology in general, we are concerned not with idealizations of physical phenomena, nor with idealizations of social phenomena. We are concerned with idealizations of artifacts that will exist in the future. And studying artifacts that exist in the future requires imagination. 

The Role of Imagination in Information Systems Research

I like being propelled along in my research by the pursuit of compelling new ideas. New ideas are exciting and often provide the energy needed to make progress on older ideas once they have lost their luster. I have discussed a number of new ideas in this blog. Most new ideas don't really go anywhere of significance but some do seem to last over time. For example, it was over fifteen years ago that I started exploring the role of stories in computer ethics. And I am still working on that very rich vein of research.

I have latched on to a new idea that I will be pursuing this year and hopefully for many years to come and that is the role of imagination in information systems research. This idea did not just occur to me. Rather it coalesced out of a lot of other ideas I was working on.

Certainly the role of imagination in writing stories is a big part of the work I am doing in writing stories to explore the ethics of technology. In that course, I have been increasingly emphasizing the use of the imagination. It is the imagination that allows us to consider, compare and choose between possible worlds. And choosing between possible worlds is at the heart of the ethics of technology. 

As part of the justification for development of the imagination, I began to develop arguments for the importance of imagination  as a business skill. My students are, after all, business students. And success in business is a thing they care about. As I worked on these arguments, I began to realize that most business skills can be considered as analytical skills or imaginative skills. For example, to understand why a thing is happening you need analysis. But to figure out what you should do requires imagination.

My interest in the imagination began to creep into other area that I was work on until, one day, it dawned on me that imagination is vastly more important than analysis in information systems research. I will develop that theme over the next few posts.