Philosophy of Engineering

Question 1

What is philosophy?

Answer 1

• Peoples commitment and values and outlook on the world

- Disciplined study of beliefs about being and knowledge, about the general nature of things

Question 2

Why should we care about the philosophy in engineering?

Answer 2

Help us understand the scope and boundaries of engineering practice

Help us understand the assumptions underlying our profession

Question 3

Engineering education has been dominated by engineering science with its roots in

Answer 3

Logical Positivism

Question 4

What are value judgements?

Answer 4

An assessment of something as good or bad in terms of one’s standards or priorities

Question 5

Define ontology:

Answer 5

Concerned with the fundamental nature of the world and of being – in particular with which principles or categories are primary and what derives from them

Question 6

What are the branches of ontology?

Answer 6

Idealism

Materialism

Question 7

What is idealism?

Answer 7

Those who start from an idea or mind or consciousness

of some supreme being

Question 8

What is Materialism?

Answer 8

Those who assert the primacy of matter, of physical

reality

Question 9

What is logic?

Answer 9

Logic is neither the only basis for accepting a proposition, nor the only way of thinking

Question 10

What is ethics according to Flew?

Answer 10

An investigation into the fundamental principles and concepts that are or ought
to be found in a given field of human thought or activity.

Question 11

What are normative ethics?

Answer 11

The investigation of how individuals and organizations ought to behave where moral
considerations are involve

Question 12

What are meta-ethics?

Answer 12

conceptual inquiries about the logical form of morality, such as the question of whether moral judgement are objective or subjective

Relevant in deciding which sorts of arguments can appropriately be used to support any given belief

Question 13

Define Heuristics:

Answer 13

• A procedure used to discover or design something, “rule of thumb” approaches that may solve a particular kind of problem but offer no certainty of success.
• They may depend on induction or previous experience.

Question 14

Define Epistemology:

Answer 14

• Concerned with the theory of knowledge
• Central issues include the nature and derivation of knowledge and its scope and
reliability, all of which are of practical importance for engineering theory and
practice

Question 15

What are the three main types of knowledge?

Answer 15

• Factual knowledge
• Practical knowledge
• Knowledge of people, places or things

Question 16

What is rationalism?

Answer 16

• Philosophical theory that all knowledge is generated by rational thought
• The mind thus generates all knowledge
• Knowledge is discovered through reason
• Prioritises theoretical prediction above all else

Question 17

What is empiricism?

Answer 17

• Philosophical theory that all knowledge is generated through experience
• Knowledge is generated through empirical data collection
• Prioritises data above all else
• The only thing we can trust is our senses / data

Question 18

What is Existentialism?

Answer 18

• Apply to the work of a collection of philosophers
• Thus not really a theory of philosophy
• more of a way to reject other philosophies
• Focus of the personal reality over knowledge
• Free Will is key
• ‘Subjectivity’ is truth
• Finding self and the meaning of life through free will, choice,
and personal responsibility

Question 19

What is logical positivism?

Answer 19

• All knowledge comes from data of experience
• Radical view: All assertions about moral, aesthetic and religious values were meaningless, as they could not be tested.
• A branch of Empiricism
• Theories and laws were not knowledge, but rather computational devices

Question 20

What is post-modernism?

Answer 20

• All human understanding is interpretation (through social, historical or political viewpoints)
• No interpretation is final
• A branch of relativism
• No such thing as ‘truth’
… this is not an approach that seems likely to appeal to an engineer attempting to decide whether or not a particular design is ready to go into production…

Question 21

What does science refer to?

Answer 21

All knowledge learnt

Question 22

What is the scientific method?

Answer 22

The scientific method is the empirical gathering of knowledge through observation, generating hypotheses, gathering empirical data and updating the hypotheses

Question 23

Who are the two philosophers who brought about dynamic issues of change to science?

Answer 23

Karl Popper

Thomas Kuhn

Question 24

What was Karl Popper known for?

Answer 24

Introduced the concept of ‘Falsifiability’ as central to the philosophy of science

Karl Popper argued
• That scientific knowledge moved forward through falsification
• A number of hypothesis are created
• These hypothesis are critically tested with empirical data and rationale
• A number fail, leaving space for new hypotheses or the remaining strong ones
• Knowledge could never be ‘positively justified’, only not falsified yet
• Any idea that cannot be falsified is not scientific

Question 25

What was Thomas Kuhn known for?

Answer 25

• Argued that science undergoes ‘paradigm shifts’.
• Science is not linear
• Proceeds by paradigm shifts
• Interspersed with ‘filling in the gaps’

Question 26

What in engineering and science are essentially different? (PPP)

Answer 26

• Practices
• Purposes
• Personnel