Philosophy and Engineering

by Van De Poel, Ibo; Goldberg, David E.; Davis, Michael (CON); Koen, Billy Vaughn (CON); Mitcham, Carl (CON)

• ISBN13: 9789048128037
• ISBN10: 904812803X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-01-03
• Publisher: Springer Verlag

Summary

Whereas science, technology, and medicine have all called forth dedicated philosophical investigations, a fourth major contributor to the technoscientific world in which we all live - that is, engineering - has been accorded almost none of the philosophical attention it deserves. This volume thus offers a first characterisation of this important new field. It springs from an initial Workshop on Philosophy and Engineering which was held in 2007 at the Delft University of Technology, and which brought together some of the primary philosophers and ethicists interested in engineering and leading engineers interested in philosophical reflections. The volume deals with such questions as: What is engineering? In what respect does engineering differ from science? What ethical problems does engineering raise? By what ethical principles are engineers guided? How do engineers themselves conceive of their profession? What do they see as the main philosophical challenges confronting them in the 21st century? The authors respond to these and other questions from philosophical and engineering view points and so illustrate how together they can meet the challenges and realize the opportunities present in the necessary encounters between philosophy and engineering - encounters that are ever more important in an increasingly engineered world and its problematic futures.

Table of Contents

Philosophy and Engineering: Setting the Stage	p. 1
Philosophy
Distinguishing Architects from Engineers: A Pilot Study in Differences Between Engineers and Other Technologists	p. 15
The Rise of Philosophy of Engineering in the East and the West	p. 31
Multiple Facets of Philosophy and Engineering	p. 41
Comparing Approaches to the Philosophy of Engineering: Including the Linguistic Philosophical Approach	p. 49
Focussing Philosophy of Engineering: Analyses of Technical Functions and Beyond	p. 61
Philosophy, Engineering, and the Sciences	p. 75
Engineering Science as a "Discipline of the Particular"? Types of Generalization in Engineering Sciences	p. 83
How the Models of Engineering Tell the Truth	p. 95
Limits to Systems Engineering	p. 109
Ethics
Integrity and the Ethical Responsibilities of Engineers	p. 125
Prioritising People: Outline of an Aspirational Engineering Ethic	p. 135
Ethical Principles for Engineers in a Global Environment	p. 147
Professional Ethics Without a Profession: A French View on Engineering Ethics	p. 161
Imagining Worlds: Responsible Engineering Under Conditions of Epistemic Opacity	p. 175
Transferring Responsibility Through Use Plans	p. 189
Design Problems and Ethics	p. 205
Ethics in Innovation: Cooperation and Tension	p. 215
Teaching Ethics to Engineering Students: From Clean Concepts to Dirty Tricks	p. 227
A Collaborative Platform for Experiments in Ethics and Technology	p. 239
Reflection
Why Philosophy? Why Now? Engineering Responds to the Crisis of a Creative Era	p. 255
A World of Things Not Facts	p. 265
Architecting Engineering Systems	p. 275
Bits Don't Have Error Bars: Upward Conceptualization and Downward Approximation	p. 285
Metaphysics of Engineering	p. 295
Engineering Determinacy: The Exclusiveness of Technology and the Presence of the Indeterminate	p. 305
Quo Vadis, Humans? Engineering the Survival of the Human Species	p. 313
The Focal Engineering Experience	p. 343
Index	p. 355
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