Methodology: Art, Science, Technology, Law, and the Means of Innovation

Abstract

The book recharacterizes innovation as the context-dependent design of new methods to solve problems for a given time and place. It also broadens innovation and the notion of methods to cover all fields of human activity, categorized under the abstract meta methods of art, science, technology, and law. Artifacts such as machines or manufactures are also recharacterized as part of overarching methods to address some human need or want through their use. Methods are thus also classed into different orders of abstraction, with the higher orders covering multiple lower order methods, or even entire categories of lower order methods. The highest orders of methods serve as design principles for innovation in mid to lower order methods. An Aristotelian framework for knowledge, production, and action is developed that then guides the introduction of an arc of innovation, similar to the arc of science, and the role of an innovation entrepreneur, who envisions, marshals resources for, and then manages a particular arc. This account of what constitutes the means of innovation is embedded into an evolutionary construct which rejects a teleological notion of "progress" for any field of human activity in favor of a story of innovation as simply ongoing Darwinian adaptation to constantly changing human and natural environments. Trade, commerce, and entrepreneurship are posited as prime drivers of both changes in the environment and responsive innovation. At the same time, the question of the need for, and nature of, artificial incentives for innovation (such as intellectual property systems) is addressed by arguing that incentives are not needed for innovation itself, but rather for its sharing, application, or distribution of resultant benefits. This leads to a focus on law as itself a set of mid to high order context-dependent innovative methods for the ordering of human society and our relationship with the natural world. Finally, a new field of methodology is proposed that will make both an art and science out of methods in and across all fields of human activity. The insights from this field will guide not only its own development, but also that of teaching, research, and practice in many other fields.