Critical Thinking and Heuristics: What Philosophy Can Learn from Engineering about the Back of the Envelope

Abstract

Who benefits when philosophers and engineers get involved in academic conversations with one another? Such conversations are often one-way streets, with philosophers offering conceptual tools, insights, and modes of inquiry that serve as contributions toward developing the philosophy of engineering and influencing practices of reflective engineering and engineering education. However, philosophers also stand to benefit from closer conversational contact with engineers, as it can bring helpful challenges not only with regard to some of philosophy’s basic assumptions, but also with regard to its common classroom practices. In this paper I take a hard look at one of these practices: the teaching of critical thinking. Long a staple within the philosophy curriculum in the US, critical thinking has in recent years been taken by those in professional engineering communities to play an important role in the formation of future engineers. I suggest that the approach to critical thinking which would be most useful to engineers would be one that underscores the value of heuristics. Such an approach to teaching critical thinking within the context of philosophy, however, is not the norm; in fact, teaching materials associated with critical thinking tend to be deeply suspicious of heuristical reasoning. Philosophy can learn from engineering about the value of heuristical reasoning as a form of critical thinking; here is a case in point, I propose, where engineering knowledge can improve philosophical knowledge.