Engineering - an Inherently Philosophical Enterprise

William Grimson, Dublin Institute of Technology

Document Type Article

Philosophy of Engineering, chapter 4, 2008.

Abstract

This chapter first sets out the arguments for considering engineering from a philosophical point of view with specific reference to the main branches of Philosophy. Additionally within the single branch of Epistemology, the relevance of Empiricism, Rationalism, Existentialism, Logical Positivist, and Post-Modernism to engineering is briefly outlined. The general proposition advanced is that Engineering is itself fundamentally philosophical in nature, attempting in its own way to make sense of the world in which we live.