Engineering and Philosophy: Reimagining Technology and Social Progress

ISBN-13: 9783030701017 / Angielski / Miękka / 2022

Pirtle, Zachary

Opis

​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.

Spis treści

Chapter 1. Reimagining Conceptions of Technological and Societal Progress

Zachary Pirtle, David Tomblin, and Guru Madhavan

Section IA. Technological Progress: Reimagining How Engineering Relates to the Sciences

Chapter 2. Engineering Design Principles in Natural and Artificial Systems. Part I: Generative Entrenchment and Modularity

William C. Wimsatt

Chapter 3. Technological Progress in the Life Sciences

Janella Baxter

Section 1B: Technological Progress: Re-imagining Engineering Knowledge

Chapter 4. Philosophical Observations and Applications in Systems and Aerospace Engineering

Stephen B. Johnson

Chapter 5. Prehistoric Stone Tool Technology and Epistemic Complexity

Manjari Chakraborty

Chapter 6. Narrative and Epistemic Positioning: The Case of the Dandelion Pilot

Dominic J. Berry

Section 2A. Social Progress: Considering Engineers’ Ethical Principles

Chapter 7. Constructing Situated and Social Knowledge: Ethical, Sociological, and Phenomenological Factors in Technological Design

Damien Patrick Williams

Chapter 8. Towards an Engineering Ethics with Non-engineers: How Western Engineering Ethics May Learn from Taiwan

Bono Po-Jen Shih

Chapter 9. Broadening Engineering Identity: Moving beyond Problem Solving

Thomas Siller, Gerry Johnson, and Russell Korte

Section 2B. Reimagining values and culture in engineering and engineered systems

Chapter 10. Engineering, Judgement and Engineering Judgement: A Proposed Definition

Daniel McLaughlin, PE

Chapter 11. Technology, Uncertainty, and the Good Life: A Stoic Perspective

Tonatiuh Rodriguez-Nikl

Section 3A. Re-imagining how engineering relates to complex sociotechnical systems

Chapter 12. The Impact of Robot Companions on the Moral Development of Children

Yvette Pearson and Jason Borenstein

Chapter 13. Engineering Our Selves: Morphological Freedom and the Myth of Multiplicity

Joshua Earle

Section 3B: Reimagining Social Progress in Democracy, and the need to Align Engineering to Social Values

Chapter 14. Shared Learning to Explore the Philosophies, Policies and Practices of Engineering: The Case of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Rider W. Foley and Elise Barrella

Chapter 15. Middle Grounds: Art and Pluralism

Caitlin Foley and Misha Rabinovich 

Chapter 16. The Artefact on Stage – Object Theatre and Philosophy of Engineering and Technology

Albrecht Fritzsche

Chapter 17. Imagined Systems: How the Speculative Novel Infomocracy offers a Simulation of the Relationship between Democracy, Technology, and Society

Malka Older and Zachary Pirtle

Section 4. Provocative Conclusion

Chapter 18. The Discrete Scaffold for Generic Design, an Interdisciplinary Craft Work for the Future

Ira Monarch, Eswaran Subrahmanian, Anne-Françoise Schmid, and Muriel Mambrini-Doudet

O autorze

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.