The idea that the most interesting answer to the question that you’re trying to ask would be given by somebody who happens to be on earth today is a real mistake. Sometimes the most interesting answer is something that somebody gave 2000 years ago, on a different continent, or in a different context.
It’s a great luxury to be able to help ourselves to this wisdom. 2,500 years ago in ancient Greece, a group of really smart people focused their attention on a set of really interesting and important questions. Luckily, this society structured itself in such a way that those individuals were given the freedom and luxury to think about those questions for their profession. Their job was to think about human flourishing. The community of individuals talking to one another about flourishing made more progress on the subject than others have since then.
Over two millennia ago, Aristotle was the greatest polymath in ancient classical Greece. He is created as being the developer of Philosophy, Physics, Biology, and Zoology. He also created a reusable methodology that today helps innovators design everything from better stories, Branding, UX, or even apps. Aristotle’s Poetics is a speculative, systematic, philosophical exploration of what he observed. It’s a methodology that brings us to the same sorts of insights as design thinking, cognitive and behavioral design.
Yes, Aristotle is the Father of Design Thinking.
Each era uses a particular mode of understanding as its best way of making sense of the world. Design Thinking seems to be today’s mode.
Like Design Thinking the Poetics Methodology developed by Aristotle systematically and orderly reveals both problem and solution. The journey starts with a problem and progresses through various stages of suffering until the main character figures out something about the situation and then uses this epiphany to approach the problem differently. This new insight or design solution solves the problem
The story ends with the hero (and the audience) emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually transformed by the experience — now isn’t that the real meaning of Behavioral Design.
The Poetic Structure: Problem — Suffering — Idea — Transformation mirrors what we now use as the Stages of Design Thinking. This same story path describes the design process in general, except now, the innovator is the one who goes on the journey of suffering, inquiry, perseverance, and epiphany.
Embedded in Aristotle’s Poetic process is the argument that if we have the love of wisdom and curiosity, and seek to create knowledge in everything we do, we will achieve pleasure every day and remain on track to attain our final purpose of living a good life.
That’s good Design.
