Abstract
What is the logic of technological choice? An elementary first move in answering this question is to distinguish between normative and engineering components. On this view, values from the normative component are used to determine the choices to be made from among the possibilities revealed by science and engineering. But these possibilities—the raw material, as it were, for the normative analysis—are a function of the idealizations and approximations used. Because nothing can begin to happen in the way of testing or application of theory in the absence of some calculated numbers, scientists and engineers require real, as opposed to in principle only, computability. But real computability must make do with actually available empirical data, auxiliary theories, computational resources, and mathematical methods. Given real world limitations on the availability and power of these necessary components, idealizations and approximations must be used by both scientist and engineer. There is really no choice for either practitioner but to simplify. As we shall see, such simplification causes problems for the reliability of the claims of science and engineering.
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Laymon, R. (1995). Idealizations, Externalities, and the Economic Analysis of Law. In: Pitt, J.C. (eds) New Directions in the Philosophy of Technology. Philosophy and Technology, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8418-0_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8418-0_11
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