Engineering and Philosophy

Engineers love to build "things" and have an innate sense of wanting to help society. However, these desires are often not connected or developed through reflections on the complexities of philosophy, biology, economics, politics, environment, and culture. To guide future efforts and to best bring about human flourishment and a just world, Engineering and Philosophy: Reimagining Technology and Progress brings together practitioners and scholars to inspire deeper conversations on the nature and varieties of engineering. The perspectives in this book are an act of reimagination: how does engineering serve society, and in a vital sense, how should it.

Auteur

Zachary Pirtle is a researcher of systems engineering and philosophy based in Washington, D.C., as well as a program executive and engineer enabling science and human exploration on the Moon.

David Tomblin is director of the Science, Technology and Society program at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Guru Madhavan is the Norman R. Augustine Senior Scholar and senior director of programs at the National Academy of Engineering.

Texte du rabat
Engineers love to build things and have an innate sense of wanting to help society. However, these desires are often not connected or developed through reflections on the complexities of philosophy, biology, economics, politics, environment, and culture. To guide future efforts and to best bring about human flourishment and a just world, Engineering and Philosophy: Reimagining Technology and Progress brings together practitioners and scholars to inspire deeper conversations on the nature and varieties of engineering. The perspectives in this book are an act of reimagination: how does engineering serve society, and in a vital sense, how should it.

Contenu
Chapter 1. Reimagining Conceptions of Technological and Societal ProgressZachary Pirtle, David Tomblin, and Guru Madhavan
Section IA. Technological Progress: Reimagining How Engineering Relates to the SciencesChapter 2. Engineering Design Principles in Natural and Artificial Systems. Part I: Generative Entrenchment and ModularityWilliam C. Wimsatt
Chapter 3. Technological Progress in the Life SciencesJanella Baxter
Section 1B: Technological Progress: Re-imagining Engineering KnowledgeChapter 4. Philosophical Observations and Applications in Systems and Aerospace EngineeringStephen B. Johnson
Chapter 5. Prehistoric Stone Tool Technology and Epistemic ComplexityManjari Chakraborty
Chapter 6. Narrative and Epistemic Positioning: The Case of the Dandelion PilotDominic J. Berry
Section 2A. Social Progress: Considering Engineers' Ethical PrinciplesChapter 7. Constructing Situated and Social Knowledge: Ethical, Sociological, and Phenomenological Factors in Technological DesignDamien Patrick Williams
Chapter 8. Towards an Engineering Ethics with Non-engineers: How Western Engineering Ethics May Learn from TaiwanBono Po-Jen Shih
Chapter 9. Broadening Engineering Identity: Moving beyond Problem SolvingThomas Siller, Gerry Johnson, and Russell Korte

Section 2B. Reimagining values and culture in engineering and engineered systemsChapter 10. Engineering, Judgement and Engineering Judgement: A Proposed DefinitionDaniel McLaughlin, PE
Chapter 11. Technology, Uncertainty, and the Good Life: A Stoic PerspectiveTonatiuh Rodriguez-Nikl

Section 3A. Re-imagining how engineering relates to complex sociotechnical systemsChapter 12. The Impact of Robot Companions on the Moral Development of ChildrenYvette Pearson and Jason Borenstein
Chapter 13. Engineering Our Selves: Morphological Freedom and the Myth of MultiplicityJoshua Earle
Section 3B: Reimagining Social Progress in Democracy, and the need to Align Engineering to Social ValuesChapter 14. Shared Learning to Explore the Philosophies, Policies and Practices of Engineering: The Case of the Atlantic Coast PipelineRider W. Foley and Elise Barrella
Chapter 15. Middle Grounds: Art and PluralismCaitlin Foley and Misha Rabinovich
Chapter 16. The Artefact on Stage Object Theatre and Philosophy of Engineering and TechnologyAlbrecht Fritzsche
Chapter 17. Imagined Systems: How the Speculative Novel Infomocracy offers a Simulation of the Relationship between Democracy, Technology, and SocietyMalka Older and Zachary Pirtle
Section 4. Provocative ConclusionChapter 18. The Discrete Scaffold for Generic Design, an Interdisciplinary Craft Work for the FutureIra Monarch, Eswaran Subrahmanian, Anne-Françoise Schmid, and Muriel Mambrini-Doudet