Abstract
Modelling is an extremely important aspect of the work of engineers. Ever since technology changed from a craft-based to a science-based practice, engineers have been engaged in modelling the artefacts they design, build and test. The modelling techniques they rely on, however, originate from the physical sciences. They work well for the technical devices, modelled as physical systems, that are the traditional products of the engineering disciplines. It is increasingly recognized, however, that modern technology consists in the implementation and operation of systems rather than single devices. The traditional conceptual framework of engineering, derived from the natural sciences, is ill-fit to model the hybridity and mereological complexity that are the key features of systems in technology. In this paper I present an approach to the modelling of systems in technology which is based on an incorporation of these two aspects from the start, represented in the notion of an instrumental system. I first show how the hybridity—the interaction between intentional action and causal processes—is taken care of in the basic structure of any instrumental system. Next I show how the representation of mereological complexity is taken care of through recursion. Finally relevance and potential applications of the approach are discussed.
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Notes
- 1.
One may assume that what was actually meant was ‘hard-systems thinking’ and ‘soft-systems thinking’, although the hyphen-less reading may be thought to fit the situation as well. But, deplorably, the hyphen is the most brutally ignored ingredient of English orthography in academic writing.
- 2.
Note that their Theory of technical systems is a translation of the 1984 original with the German title Theorie technischer Systeme, which is again the second revised and extended edition of a book from 1974 entitled Theorie der Maschinensystemen (‘Theory of machine systems’).
- 3.
The first presentation of the notion of an instrumental system and of its stratified structure is [6]. I wish to acknowledge the important contributions of Bjørn Jespersen to the theory of instrumental system presented here.
- 4.
To be very precise, the intention in nutcracking is to crack a nutshell, rather than an entire nut. A cracked entire nut typically counts as a failure. Still, the instrumental system’s object is the nut, not just the nutshell. If you could somehow isolate the shell from the nut to crack just the shell, you ipso facto have lost the need for cracking the shell.
- 5.
Malfunctioning systems can either be seen as included in the idle systems or as forming a system state of its own, next to operational systems and idle systems. I see no compelling reason to prefer the one to the other.
- 6.
This cannot work in biology, but there we may acquiesce in finding it impossible to ascribe a function to an entire organism. On the other hand, organisms could be seen as having functions derived from the role they play in ecosystems.
- 7.
Metaphysically, this may not be so straightforward: the ‘is’ in this statement is arguably not the ‘is’ of identity but rather the ‘is’ of realization or constitution.
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Franssen, M. (2014). Modelling Systems in Technology as Instrumental Systems. In: Magnani, L. (eds) Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology. Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics, vol 8. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37428-9_30
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