PHILOSOPHY

What is philosophy

• Philosophy:
• Peoples commitment and values and outlook on the world
• Disciplined study of beliefs about being and knowledge, about the general
nature of things

“What is the meaning of
life/engineering?”

• Lord Ashby (1966)
• “a student who can weave his technology into the fabric of society can claim to have a iberal education; a student who cannot weave his technology into the technology of
society cannot claim even to be a good technologist”

Introduction

• Why should we care about philosophy?
• Help us understand the scope and boundaries of engineering practice
• Help us understand the assumptions underlying our profession

• Engineering education has been dominated by engineering science with its roots in “logical
positivism”

• The widely held view that science and technology are value-free is no longer sustainable
• As engineers we are constantly called upon to make value judgements and we must recognise this as an essential aspect of our professional practice

• Value judgements is an essential part of our professional practice:
• An assessment of something as good or bad in terms of one’s standards or priorities

Branches of philosophy

Ontology
• 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

• Branches of ontology

• Idealism – those who start from an idea or mind or consciousness of some supreme being

• Materialism – Those who assert the primacy of matter, of physical reality

Branches of philosophy -

Ethics

• An investigation into the fundamental principles and concepts that are or ought to be found in a given field of human thought or activity. (Flew 1984)

• Normative ethics
• The investigation of how individuals and organizations ought to behave where moral considerations are involved

• Meta-ethics

• 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

Logic

“The study of the structure and principles of reasoning, of sound argument…… [its] aim is to make explicit the rules according to which arguments ought to be constructed, at the same time pointing out any anomalies that may appear
in the process. (Flew 1984)

• Logic is neither the only basis for accepting a proposition, nor the only way of thinking • Example: Given a repeated experience, even without underlying reason, it is reasonable to expect further repetition • The process of induction (deriving general rules from specific examples) is important

Heuristics

• 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.

Epistemology

• 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

• Three main types of knowledge

• Factual knowledge (Knowledge that)
• Practical knowledge (Knowledge how)
• Knowledge of people, places or things (knowledge by acquaintance)

• Practical knowledge as well as how we acquire it is particularly important to
engineers