The Focal Engineering Experience

Abstract

I suggest that postmodern engineering move in the direction of what I am calling focal engineering. The notion of focal comes from the advocacy of Albert Borgmann for focal things and practices to engage our lives, as a counter to the disengaging tendencies of modern technology. I propose to look at what focal engineering might be, what the experience of it might entail, and how it could be assessed. The German language has two words, Erlebnis and Erfahrung, that both translate into the English word experience. Erfahrung is reflective, mediated, second-hand experience, our ordinary everyday experience. Erlebnis is our first-hand immediate experience, the Augenblick experience, the moment of vision, or the “a-ha” experience. These two notions of experience will play a role in the ethical assessment of the engineering project. Three types of ethics emerge, one relevant to the person (engineer), another to the process (engineering), and the third to the product (the engineered). Each type of ethics will initially seek an Erlebnis assessment, then an Erfahrung experience, then a circle back to the beginning for another Erlebnis, etc. Such a progression is a hermeneutic circle. A couple of circles around the Erlebnis/Erfahrung constellation should provide an authentic ethical assessment of the focal engineering experience.