Abstract
Is there a philosophy of engineering (singular)? My answer is no, though I don’t intend that to discourage anyone who would want to produce one. I use the metaphor of a diamond with many facets to bolster my negative answer, but also to suggest the complexity if anyone were to do so. And this is not just my opinion. I base my view on a variety of discussions of engineering in the literature of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. And, following the guidelines of engineer Billy Vaughn Koen, I mark the time period as 1975–2005, from the beginning of the society until the SPT conference in Delft in 2005. The diamond metaphor seems useful to me, to suggest looking at the phenomenon of engineering both from the inside – the inner crystalline structure, so to speak – and from the outside of external criticism. Among inner facets, I look at engineering as a guild, with its own self-selected guidelines, professional associations, educational system, and place within the larger society in which it thrives. I hope that what I say reflects changes in the world of engineering, outside philosophical circles, in the same time period, not only in my home country of the USA but in the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Spain (and indirectly in other countries, including Poland, Russia, China and Japan, among others), with which SPT has had contacts. But my primary focus is on what philosophers (and a few engineers) have said in publications associated with SPT.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Borgmann, Albert. 1984. Technology and the character of contemporary life. Chicago.
Bunge, Mario. 1985. Treatise on basic philosophy,VII, III, Part II. Reidel.
Cuevas Badallo, Ana. 2005. A model-based approach to technological theories. Techne 9(2): 18–49.
Dessauer, Friedrich. 1927. Philosophie der Technik. Cohen.
Dewey, John. 1929. The quest for certainty. Minton: Balch.
Dreyfus, Hubert. 1992. What computers still can’t do. MIT.
Durbin, Paul, ed. 1991. Critical perspectives on nonacademic science and engineering. Lehigh.
Durbin, Paul. 2007. Philosophy of technology: In search of discourse synthesis. Techne 10(2): 1–288.
Ellul, Jacques. 1946. The technological society. Knopf.
Feenberg, Andrew. 1991. Critical theory of technology. Oxford.
Ferre, Frederick. 1988. Philosophy of technology. Prentice-Hall.
Florman, Samuel. 1976. The existential pleasures of engineering. St. Martin’s.
Goldman, Steve. 1987. The history of engineering education. National Technical Information Service.
Heidegger, Martin. 1977. The question concerning technology and other essays. Harper & Row.
Hickman, Larry. 2001. Philosophical tools for technological culture. Indiana.
Ihde, Don. 1993. Philosophy of technology. Paragon House.
Koen, Billy Vaughn. 1985. Definition of the engineering method. American Society of Engineering Education.
Laymon, Ronald. Idealizations and the reliability of dimensional analysis. In Critical perspectives on nonacademic science and engineering, ed. P. Durbin, 146–180. Lehigh.
Marcuse, Herbert. 1964. One-dimensional man. Beacon.
Michalos, Alex. 1984. Philosophy of science: Historical, social, and value aspects. In A Guide to the Culture of Science, Technology, and Medicine, ed. P. Durbin, ed., 197–281. Free Press.
Mitcham, Carl. 1994. Thinking through technology. Chicago.
Pitt, Joseph. 2000. Thinking about technology. Seven Bridges.
Quintanilla, Miguel Angel. 1989. Tecnologia: Un enfoque filosofico. Fundesco.
Rapp, Friedrich. 1997. The material and cultural aspects of technology. Techne 4(3): 45–57.
Ropohl, Gunther. 1997. Philosophy of socio-technical systems. Techne 4(3): 59–71.
Thompson, Paul. 1997. Food biotechnology in ethical perspective. Chapman and Hall.
Tondl, Ladislav. 1997. Information and systems dimensions of technological artifacts. Techne 4(3): 73–91.
van Bertalanffy, Ludwig. 1973. General systems theory. Braziller.
Winner, Langdon. 1986. The whale and the reactor. Chicago.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Durbin, P.T. (2009). Multiple Facets of Philosophy and Engineering. In: Poel, I., Goldberg, D. (eds) Philosophy and Engineering:. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2804-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2804-4_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-2803-7
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-2804-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)