Abstract
Herbert Simon’s perception of the fundamental unity of design activities and the associated notion of sciences of the natural and of the artificial are put into dialogue with Billy Vaughn Koen and Joan van Aken through the device of “three blind certainties”: (1) that engineering is applied science; (2) that engineering is one of the sciences of the artificial; (3) that the advancement of engineering comes from the advancement of science. Simonian vocabulary is a stepping-stone for these three blind certainties. Koen offers a Rortyan redescription that redefines the possibilities of our understanding of engineering, proposing a vocabulary of his own to expose these certainties. Van Aken qualifies, but reaffirms these certainties, refining Simonian vocabulary to broaden its reach in support of an agenda for design research. As Koen is rarely perceived in this light, some final remarks clarify his relevance, and then the dialogues between Simon and Koen, and Simon and van Aken are adjudicated.
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Silva, É.R., Proença, D., Bartholo, R. (2018). Herbert Simon Meets Billy Vaughn Koen and Joan van Aken: From Sciences of the Artificial to Engineering Heuristics and Design Propositions. In: Mitcham, C., LI, B., Newberry, B., ZHANG, B. (eds) Philosophy of Engineering, East and West. Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, vol 330. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62450-1_13
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