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The Dooyeweerd Pages

The Dooyeweerd Pages is a growing website designed to aid scholars in understanding the philosophical framework of the late Herman Dooyeweerd -

"The most profound, innovative and penetrating philosopher since Kant."
(Giorgio Delvecchio).

New opportunity to publish: The International Journal of Multi-aspectual Practice (IJMAP) has been founded to encourage discussion of how Dooyeweerd's (and other) aspects may be employed in practice. It is an online journal hosted by the University of Essex, U.K. and currently its publications are free. Please see the four papers of first issue.

Come to this website if you want to:

Find out about Dooyeweerd's philosophy (especially his aspects)
Explore, discuss, critique Dooyeweerd or compare his ideas with others.
Use Dooyeweerd's ideas in practice.

This Page and Site

Help! Where do I Start?
What Do You Want To Do:

Understanding Dooyeweerd's Thought
Applying Dooyeweerd's Thought
Discussing Dooyeweerd's Thought
Critique of Dooyeweerd's Thought (+,-)
Compare with Other Thinkers

Who was Herman Dooyeweerd?
Sundry Supporting Pages
Contact
Read more - Bibliography.

What Do You Want To Know?
A Themed Overview of Dooyeweerd's Thought:

The Different 'Flavour' of Dooyeweerd's Thought
Dooyeweerd's Theory of Modal Aspects (probably the best interdisciplinary structure in the world!)
On Being Human
Knowledge, Thinking, Theory and Practice
On Normativity and Ought - Good and Evil
Dooyeweerd's Theory of Being and Things
Dooyeweerd's Theory of Time
On Presuppositions, Ground Motives, Dualisms, Worldviews
Dooyeweerd's Attempt at a 'Christian' Philosophy
The Story of the Dooyeweerd Pages
Bits and Pieces

Worth Looking At

New Material:

Dooyeweerd on Youtube - a video clip explaining Andrew Basden's research for a University of Salford video, shot and edited by Nick Breems. - new 1 September 2011

Emergence - a Dooyeweerdian View, comparing with various thinkers and suggesting contributions. - New 20 August 2011

The story of the Dooyeweerd Pages - new 30 June 2011
An academic paper in a top journal (EJIS) that shows how Dooyeweerd's philosophy can integrate positivist, interpretive and socio-critical research paradigms. - new 12 May 2011 Abstract, details and invitation to download full paper
A 'Pecha Kucha' (400-second presentation) of why an academic institution should take Dooyeweerd's philosophy seriously. - new 12 May 2011
What is love? - a multi-aspectual view. - new 5 March 2011
Final draft of Philosophical Frameworks for Understanding Information Systems is now available - new 22 December 2010

Aspects of Long-term business success and Quaker capitalism - New 1 November 2010
Critique and enrichment of main portions of Michel Foucault's thought - New 23 October 2010

Interesting Material:

Aspects - what Dooyeweerd is best-known for.
Comparison of Dooyeweerd's aspects with other suites.
Some reasons to believe Dooyeweerd's suite of aspects may have advantages over others.
Dooyeweerd's approach to everyday experience
Analysing benefits of a course of action or an IT system using Dooyeweerd's suite of aspects.
How to undertake Aspectual Analysis more generally
Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford: aspectual analysis uncovers why it is such a good read.

Portrait of Character and Development of Herman Dooyeweerd

Some more general benefits and advantages of Dooyeweerd's thought
Dooyeweerd as Extreme Philosophy?
Book: 'Philosophical Frameworks for Understanding Information Systems': understanding the 'whole story' that is information technology in our lives

Dooyeweerd's notion of multiple rationalities with examples: Helps sort out issues
Ethics - a summary of Dooyeweerd's approach to ethical issues and how it relates to half a dozen traditional theories of ethics (deontology, axiology, teleology, linguistics, existentialism, phenomenonology)
A brief note on postmodernism

Structure of Site:

Top level - over 100 pages introducing Dooyeweerd's philosophy.
- Using Dooyeweerd's Thought - a growing collection of how Dooyeweerd's thought is being used
- Examples of Dooyeweerdian Thought
- Links to Other Thought - comparisons with philosophers and other thinkers
- Stories - only a few as yet
- Ideas of various people that expand or speculate on Dooyeweerd's
- Papers - a dozen papers discussing Dooyeweerd's thought
  - Of special note: Choi's Dialogue and Antithesis - PhD Thesis

Main Pages

What Do You Want To Do?

Understanding Dooyeweerd's Thought: Perhaps you wanted ... Themed Outline of Dooyeweerd's Main Ideas?
If not, the following look at Dooyeweerd's thought as a whole.
- A brief, readable overview of Dooyeweerdian thought.
- An Outline of Dooyeweerdian Ideas Relevant to Information Technology
- Most of Dooyeweerd in Four Paragraphs - a summary perhaps more suited to critical thinkers?
- Yong-Joon Choi's dissertation, which contains an excellent explanation of Dooyeweerd's thought, especially his critical side, applies Dooyeweerdian thought in a Korean context.
Applying Dooyeweerd's Thought:
A growing collection of pages discussing how Dooyeweerd's thought could be used, for example:
- Usefulness of Dooyeweerd to Other Philosophy
  - It discloses new topics for philosophical examination.
  - It provides a basis for points of contact between rival philosophies, so they can mutually understand each other and communicate.
  - It establishes conditions for such communication.
  - It suggests a technique for discourse between philosophies.
- Analysing benefits of a course of action or an IT system using Dooyeweerd's suite of aspects
- How to undertake Aspectual Analysis - New 24 November 2007
- Aspectual analysis of Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford, uncovers why it is such a good read.
- Mike Winfield's Multi-Aspectual Knowledge Elicitation and three example interviews that demonstrate its power and potential for liberating and empowering the interviewee.
- Applying Dooyeweerdian philosophy to constructing frameworks for understanding information systems - new results of research.
Also:
- A single page that contains a collection of shorter, earlier ideas of how Dooyeweerd's thought can be used.
- A collection of specific examples.
  - Some examples of multi-aspectual human activity
- On Misusing Dooyeweerdian Ideas (Page started)
Links with Other Thinkers:
- Comparisons with other thinkers or streams of thinking - Alexander, von Baader, Bernstein, Bhaskar, Buber, Bunge, Checkland (SSM), Foucault, Giddens, Grounded Theory, Habermas, Hartmann, Heidegger, Latour, Parsons, Polanyi, Searle, systems theory, Vigotsky, Wenger's 'Communities of Practice', and others, even H.R.H. The Prince of Wales.
- A tabular comparison of Dooyeweerd's suite of aspects with those of others, including Maslow, Checkland, Hartmann, Bunge, Habermas, Wilenius, Boulding, kierkegaard, the categories used in Roget's Thesaurus and Encyclopedia Britannica, and others.
- Ahead of his time - a number of ways in which Dooyeweerdian thinking seems to be emerging as the new thinking of today.
- A selection of academic papers that seek to apply Dooyeweerdian thought in various disciplines or areas of thought.
- Main roots of Dooyeweerd's thought (pages yet to be written)
  - Directional Roots in Kuyper, ARP and Dutch Reformed Church
  - Theological Roots in Calvin the Thinker and Augustine
  - Existential Roots in Heidegger
  - Methodological Roots in Kant
Critique of Dooyeweerd's Thought:
- Some Criticisms of Dooyeweerdian Ideas.
- Some Justifications for Dooyeweerd's ideas.
- Some reasons to believe Dooyeweerd's suite of aspects may have advantages over others
- When, and on what basis, should we consider modifying, replacing or rejecting Dooyeweerd's ideas?
- Choi's dissertation contains useful, detailed discussion and critique.
Benefits and Limitations of Dooyeweerd's Thought
- Discussion of benefits of Dooyeweerd's thought
- Usefulness of Dooyeweerd to Other Philosophy - ** New 17 June 2010 **:
Who was Herman Dooyeweerd?
- Biographical details and picture.
- Portrait of the Character and Development of Herman Dooyeweerd.
- Started a collection of stories.
- Interviews with Herman Dooyeweerd:
  - On corporations, businesses, workers ownership, etc. in 1974.
Sundry Supporting Pages:
- Books, Papers, and other resources.
- Relevant web links. (Page being written)
- An excellent help to Dooyeweerd scholars: Glenn Friessen's comparison of content and page numbers of Dooyeweerd's two main works, WdW and NC.
- Contact.
- Discussion Forum. Join ThinkNet by sending a message to majordomo@redeemer.on.ca; mainly populated by those who know Dooyeweerd's ideas and want to discuss them in depth; but join and listen in. Alternatively, please email me.
- Purpose of this Website
- Comments on the Dooyeweerd Pages Website

An Overview of Dooyeweerdian Ideas

The following provide direct links to some areas of Dooyeweerd's philosophical framework that provide new and useful perspectives on issues that face us. If you cannot find what you want here, try another List of Topics, that has more detail over a narrower scope.

The Different 'Flavour' of Dooyeweerd's Thought

"All else is a footnote to Plato" wrote A.N. Whitehead. Most Western thought since then has made similar presuppositions to those the ancient Greeks made. Dooyeweerd questioned them ...

Everyday life: The intellectual dignity and richness of everyday life and everyday thinking.
Presupposing Meaning rather than Existence - A brief summary of that. A few initial Notes on Meaning.
The idea that the cosmos has two sides: law and subject side; Dooyeweerd's conception of Law as Promise.
Philosophy and theoretical thinking are not neutral: All knowing is relative. Thinking is based on several layers of religious presuppositions. Dooyeweerd on Truth
Philosophical, not theological, implications of the notion of Creation and Creator and of presupposing the Creation-Fall-Redemption ground motive.

Dooyeweerd's Theory of Modal Aspects

Perhaps the best-known of Dooyeweerd's ideas. A philosophically sound basis for diversity and coherence, and for interdisciplinarity. But much more than that.

Masters Students value Dooyeweerd's Aspects - Some comments from students in information systems development who were taught Dooyeweerd's aspects
Dooyeweerd's Aspects - entry page for each of the fifteen aspects in Dooyeweerd's suite.
Overview of Dooyeweerd's Theory of Aspects
What are the Aspects?
Explanation of Aspect Pages
Summary Table of Aspects
Neighouring aspects - reflections on affinities and differences.
Discussion of Dooyeweerd's theory of anticipation especially how quantitative aspect anticipates others
Inter-aspect analogies: a selection.
Dooyeweerd's notion of multiple rationalities with examples
Page on Diversity started.
Is Dooyeweerd's notion of aspects too static? Dynamics in Dooyeweerdian thought
How to undertake Aspectual Analysis
Some reasons to believe Dooyeweerd's suite of aspects may have advantages over others. Comparison of Dooyeweerd's aspects with other suites
"The aspects seem too 'given' for me!" says the postmodernist, the constructivist. Not so! See Dooyeweerd's notion of truth and theory of ground motives and, for a comment about the non-givenness of aspects.

On Being Human

Dooyeweerd says two things about being human: multi-aspectual functioning, and the human ego, selfhood or heart. He accounts for human life, needs, potential, etc. by reference to multi-aspect functioning, and thereby avoids Platonism, Scholasticism and mysticism.

Dooyeweerd's approach to everyday experience
Human Functioning - and the richness of life.
Danie Strauss' discussion of Category Mistake in Opposing Individual to Society - New 23 June 2010
Multi-aspectual functioning
On Dooyeweerd's Notion of Qualifying Aspect

But he also posits a supra-aspectual human ego or selfhood, and thereby avoids functionalism.

What is Human Being?.
Dooyeweerd's statements on Selfhood/Ego with pages in NC.

Knowledge, Thinking, Theory and Practice

Dooyeweerd "made the structure of theoretical thought transparent" (Klapwijk, 1991) - as well as other types of thinking and knowledge ...

Dooyeweerd's approach to everyday attitude of though
Dooyeweerd's view of Knowing and Knowledge
Dooyeweerd's notion of multiple rationalities with examples
Dooyeweerd's notion of Truth - Relative and Absolute
Dooyeweerd's theory of Thought
Abstraction and Everyday Living - Clouser's expansion of Dooyeweerd's ideas.
Science from a Dooyeweerdian perspective - Bringing theory and practice together, and restoring dignity to everyday thinking.

On Normativity and Ought

To Dooyeweerd, norms are basic and enable rather than constrain. Pages only started ...

Ethics - a summary of Dooyeweerd's approach to ethical issues and how it relates to half a dozen traditional theories of ethics (deontology, axiology, teleology, linguistics, existentialism, phenomenonology)
On Virtue - how Dooyeweerd can address many issues that have arisen over the last 2,500 years.
Some notes on Normativity - How determinism and freedom can come together.
The Shalom Hypothesis - A key to understanding multiple factors in success and failure. (brief overview)

Dooyeweerd's Theory of Existence

If meaning is primary, then entities (incl. systems, activities, events, etc.) gain their existence from aspectual functioning:

Dooyeweerd's Theory of Entities - how they arise from Meaning; a strikingly different concept of entities.
Enkapsis - types of relationships between entities. Summary of Enkapsis.
On the functioning of entities
The notion of the Qualifying Aspect of an entity or system. - But some things seem non-asplectual.
Dooyeweerd's interesting (non-Cartesian) slant on the Subject-Object relationship.

Dooyeweerd's Theory of Time

Like Heidegger, Dooyeweerd tried to work out what Time is. He concluded that time is the 'bottom layer' of created reality, and that the religious humen self transends time.

On Presuppositions, Ground Motives, Dualisms, etc.

Dooyeweerd made an in-depth critique of theoretical thinking over 2,500 years, and held that thinking is founded on presupposition (and in doing so pefigured much of the most recent post-positivist thought of people like Polanyi and Habermas). This major part of his thought is as yet poorly represented here, but will be added later.

On Absolutization
Outline of Dooyeweerd's 'Two Ways' of Transcendental Critique.
Dooyeweerd's Theory of Ground Motives - The fundamental pre-suppositions underlying our thinking over the last 2,500 years; the generators of world-views.
Dooyeweerd's Four Main Ground Motives of Western thought and culture
- Philosophical, not theological, implications of the notion of Creation and Creator.
A brief summary of Ground Motives
Three meanings of 'religion' in Dooyeweerd.

Dooyeweerd's Attempt at a 'Christian' Philosophy

Dooyeweerd was convinced that philosophy, even that undertaken by Christian thinkers, had been antithetic to the Biblical worldview. He tried to find out the root of this antithesis, and to construct a new style of 'Christian' philosophy.

Dooyeweerd and Christian Thought - neither fundamentalist nor wishy-washy.
Some notes on Spirituality
Some notes on Vollenhoven's view of relationship between God and the Cosmos
Religion - three meanings of the term.
How the notion of Creation and Creator has Philosophical, not theological, implications.

Bits and Pieces

Here are links to other portions of Dooyeweerd's thought.

Dooyeweerd's Theory of History and Progress
Dooyeweerd's Theory of Social Institutions - page only just set up.
Dooyeweerd's Juridical Writings - page to be written.

Comments, queries welcome.

Number of visitors to these pages: Counter . Written on the Amiga and Protext.

Last updated: 9 April 2000 this new version first compiled. 10 August 2000 links page. 4 October 2000 Some rearrangement of the second half, and link to history. 7 February 2001 copyright, email. 14 February 2001 counter. 14 February 2001 new link to subject-object duality. 20 May 2001 new drawer for external thinking. 19 September 2001 link to examples drawer. 18 October 2001 new links to social.theory and interviews. 9 November 2001 new link to dooy.ahead. 22 February 2002 new links to ext/choi and papers/. 27 February 2002 Corrected name. 28 February 2002 new link: virtue. 1 March 2002 rearranged a couple of links. 10 June 2002 Link to modifying.html. 3 July 2002 small intro sentence added. 2 August 2002 link to On Existence and Multi-aspectual fning. 17 September 2002 tidied up, new links, esp to ThinkNet; ext/ links better. 18 September 2002 link to new d4p. 20 November 2002 revamped links to major topics in Dooyeweerd, adding some more, removed link to orig.index.html. 6 January 2003 link to entities.html. 18 February 2003 link to truth.html. 27 February 2003 link to enkapsis.html, new title for overview. 1 March 2003 New pages on Ground Motives. 4 March 2003 religion link. 7 March 2003 Link to progress.html new file; dooy.xn.html revamped. Links re. postmodernism. 16 April 2003 links to human, self, slight restructuring of initial parts with What's New links. 16 May 2003 link to hd.html page. 19 May 2003 re-grouped the main part, for ease of reader orientation; in part II repl. Meaning by 'Diffnt flavour' and moved first. 23 September 2003 Dooyeweerd's theory of time. 23 October 2003 stories. 14 November 2003 link ffuis. 12 March 2004 new link to andrew.html, link to MAKE. 13 April 2004 some 'strongs' removed. 15 June 2004 New: Bhaskar and 2sides; made specific links to 'ext' thinkers. 14 August 2004 link to defence strategy and to ps; rid some old news. 23 August 2004 Apel, crit new. 14 September 2004 Links to law, creator; some rearrangement of main topics. 24 December 2004 WhoWas is heading. 30 December 2004 nc-wdw. 1 April 2005 link to suite.html. 14 April 2005 minor changes. 22 April 2005 new page 'Everyday'. 4 May 2005 ethics. 9 May 2005 Religious root discussion; links to Voll and the.man. 11 May 2005 New visual form: two boxes at start; relabelled thent,th.asp as theory.ent/asp. 25 May 2005 link to anticipation. 28 May 2005 New intro. 11 July 2005 slight rearrangement of starting links and overview, new spinoza. 3 October 2005 Bunge link. 19 June 2006 'new'. 24 June 2006 link Hirst. 23 August 2006 link to analogy. 31 March 2007 links to bhaskar and compare.asp. 14 August 2007 link to bk/. 24 November 2007 aspanal, and rem'd 'new' links. 5 January 2008 pomo. 9 February 2008 absolutization. 19 March 2008 asp.neighbours. 22 May 2008 roots, and slight alterations of wording. 21 July 2008 rationality, benefits. 14 September 2008 link to compare.asp. 23 October 2008 using/ben.det.anal. 28 November 2008 a few more links; value proposition in 'worth'. 16 December 2008 link larkrise. 29 January 2009 some rearrangement of contents, and also making clearer the route to using/ etc. 30 January 2009 more rearrangements to make page easier to use; added site structure. 7 March 2009 asp.neighbours as 'WLA'. 30 April 2009 xp. 16 June 2009 nonaspl. 4 August 2009 examples/maspl. 13 August 2009 time: easy table. 3 September 2009 name 'table'. 23 November 2009 wenger link. 28 January 2010 recommendations. 4 May 2010 slight tidying. 10 May 2010 aspects.aspects.html. 17 June 2010 using/use.in.phy, and small inner bullets. 23 June 2010 issues/indiv.soc. 10 July 2010 Bernstein. 1 November 2010 links to foucault, quaker.capitalism. 22 December 2010 finaldraft of book. 10 April 2011 cpc link. 12 May 2011 links to Pecha Kucha and EJIS paper. 30 June 2011 story. 20 August 2011 replaced CPC2011 notice with IJMAP; link to emergence. 1 September 2011 youtube.