This seminar is an experiment, an attempt to increase human knowledge by humans using a network of computers. It could be argued that the computer network adds nothing to the classical theories of epistemology, and I agree that the seminar should raise this question in its deliberations.
I am familiar with the attempts to improve the playing of chess by computers, which has clearly improved our human knowledge of chess, though possibly ruined chess as a competitive sport.
But epistemology and science are not games, I believe. The human species has gotten itself into a seriously bad state of affairs with its design of military, educational, nutritional, housing and environmental control systems.
We humans still lack any sound basis for managing well any of these systems. My bias is that the word "well" in the previous sentence must refer to ethics and to future generations as well as our own.
Hence, today's knowledge systems, so badly split up into disciplines, should be ready to take an examination regarding their knowledge of a systems approach. The ethical criticism of humanity's system of acquiring knowledge ("science") must include an evaluation of what questions our science addresses and what questions it ignores.
Since I wrote "The Design of Inquiring Systems", I've turned more to the spiritual than ever, to the idea and feeling that the most important aspect of human living is kindness, both to oneself and others. That a human being can be unkind to himself or herself never was an important topic when I wrote "The Design of Inquiring Systems", nor did I realize how important the topic was in designing a life that is dedicated to serving others.
But I went through a period of my life where I ignored self-care, and later found a design of life which furthers self love as well as love of others.
My question for this seminar, therefore, is how to design a caring system. Is a caring system the same as the "Inquiring System" I described in my book nearly 30 years ago? To me, as a philosopher who holds tightly to the worship of my ancestors, I'm trying to help Plato and Aristotle in their discussion about education of the youth: which idea stands at the top of the pyramid of ideas, the idea of the good or the idea of the true? In our democratic seminar, we all can vote if we have a good feeling. I vote for the good.