Abstract
Pragmatism and engineering have some significant similarities, both in the way the world is viewed and the way that beliefs are proven to be true. The two very different fields also consider practice to be more important than theory, and experience is critical in each of their approaches. It is difficult as an engineer to read pragmatist writings and not think of engineering, sometimes because engineers are mentioned directly and sometimes because a piece of writing will sound like engineering. The pragmatic movement is, in many ways, an approach to examining philosophical issues in a practical way. More importantly, pragmatists approach philosophy in a way that sounds like the way engineers approach science and technology.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Allen, B. (2008). Artifice and design: Art and technology in human experience. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
American Concrete Institute. (2011). Building code requirements for structural concrete (ACI 318–11). Farmington Hills: American Concrete Institute.
Bak, P. (1996). How nature works: The science of self-organized criticality. New York: Copernicus.
Bernstein, R. J. (1997). Pragmatism, pluralism, and the healing of wounds. In L. Menand (Ed.), Pragmatism: A reader (pp. 381–401). New York: Vintage Books.
Bernstein, R. J. (2010). The pragmatic turn. Cambridge: The Polity Press.
Bulleit, W. M. (2013). Uncertainty in the design of non-prototypical engineered systems. In D. Michelfelder, N. McCarthy, & D. Goldberg (Eds.), Philosophy and engineering: Reflections on practice, principles, and process (pp. 317–327). Dordrecht: Springer.
Delatte, N. J., Jr. (2009). Beyond failure: Forensic case studies for civil enigneers. Reston: American Society of Civil Engineers.
Dewey, J. (1981). The need for a recovery of philosophy. In J. J. McDermott (Ed.), The philosophy of John Dewey: Vol. I: The structure of experience, Vol. II: The lived experience (pp. 58–97). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Dewey, J. (2008). The quest for certainty. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), The Later works, 1925–1953, Vol. 4: 1929. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press.
Emison, G. A. (2004). American pragmatism as a guide for professional ethical conduct for engineers. Science and Engineering Ethics, 10(2), 225–233.
Ferguson, E. S. (1994). Engineering and the mind’s eye. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Goldman, S. L. (2004). Why we need a philosophy of engineering: A work in progress. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 29(2), 163–176.
James, W. (1981). In B. Kuklick (Ed.), Pragmatism. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Koen, B. V. (2003). Discussion of the method. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kornwachs, K. (2015). Chapter 5: Is technology a science? Recent developments in German philosophy of technology and engineering. In D. Michelfelder, B. Newberry, & Q. Zhu (Eds.), Philosophy and engineering: Exploring boundaries, expanding connections. Dordrecht: Springer, To be published.
Kuklick, B. (1981). Introduction. In James (Ed.), Pragmatism. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Layton, E. (1971). Mirror-image twins: The community of science and technology in 19th-century America. Technology and Culture, 12(4), 562–580.
Menand, L. (1997). An introduction to pragmatism. In L. Menand (Ed.), Pragmatism: A reader (pp. xi–xxxiv). New York: Vintage Books.
Menand, L. (2001). The metaphysical club. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Miller, J. H., & Page, S. E. (2007). Complex adaptive systems: An introduction to computational models of social life. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Petroski, H. (1982). To engineer is human. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Petroski, H. (2006). Success through failure: The paradox of design. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Petroski, H. (2010). The essential engineer: Why science alone will not solve our global problems. New York: Vintage Books.
Rorty, R. M. (2010). Philosophy as science, as metaphor, and as politics. In C. J. Voparil & R. J. Bernstein (Eds.), The Rorty reader. Chichester: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Schmidt, J. A. (2013). Changing the paradigm for engineering ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics. doi:10.1007/s11948-013-9491-y.(5November2013).
Seely, B. E. (1999). The other re-engineering of engineering education. 1900–1965. Journal of Engineering Education, 88(3), 285–294.
Simon, H. A. (1996). The sciences of the artificial (3rd ed.). Cambridge: MIT Press.
Suckiel, E. K. (1982). The pragmatic philosophy of William James. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Vincenti, W. G. (1990). What engineers know and how they know it: Analytical studies from aeronautical history. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bulleit, W.M. (2017). Pragmatism and Engineering. In: Michelfelder, D., Newberry, B., Zhu, Q. (eds) Philosophy and Engineering. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 26. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45193-0_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45193-0_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-45191-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-45193-0
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)