ABSTRACT
The Arts and Crafts movement in England and America was the persistent result of a general reaction to the mechanized ways of the developing industries. Ross and Dow's interest in decorative arts was combined with their exposure to the work of the Impressionists in Europe and curiosity for the arts of the Far East. Their concerns with how design is done are more significant than their aesthetic choices and how they itemize principles for design. The Arts and Crafts Movement preceded the twentieth-century avant-gardes in contending geometric canons. Ross and Dow's work shows an attempt at applying the pragmatist premise for creative thinking – a self-conscious process carried out in individualized processes and with changing rules depending on the context and intent. The process only then makes use of perceptual uncertainties and allows for plurality. The attempt at a general structure for a unified science extended to a unity of life in Rudolf Carnap's "logical construction of the world".
