Philosophy and Engineering Philosophy of Engineering and Technology VOLUME2 Editor-in-chief PieterE.Vermaas(DelftUniversityofTechnology):analyticresearch,general topicsandoverarchingtopics AssociatedEditors DavidE.Goldberg(UniversityofIllinois):practitioners’research IbovandePoel(DelftUniversityofTechnology):ethicsofengineering andtechnology EvanSelinger(RochesterInstituteofTechnology):researchincontinental philosophyandscienceandtechnologystudies Forfurthervolumes: http://www.springer.com/series/8657 · Ibo van de Poel David E. Goldberg Editors Associate Editors Michael Davis, Billy Vaughn Koen, Carl Mitcham, P. Aarne Vesilind Philosophy and Engineering An Emerging Agenda 123 Editors IbovandePoel DavidE.Goldberg DepartmentofPhilosophy DepartmentofIndustrialandEnterprise SchoolofTechnologyPolicyand SystemsEngineering Management UniversityofIllinoisatUrbana-Champaign, DelftUniversityofTechnology 117TransportationBuilding POBox5015 104S.MathewsAvenue 2600GADelft Urbana,IL61801USA TheNetherlands [email protected] [email protected] ISBN978-90-481-2803-7 e-ISBN978-90-481-2804-4 DOI10.1007/978-90-481-2804-4 SpringerDordrechtHeidelbergLondonNewYork LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2009935897 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaB.V.2010 Nopartofthisworkmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmittedinanyformorby anymeans,electronic,mechanical,photocopying,microfilming,recordingorotherwise,withoutwritten permissionfromthePublisher,withtheexceptionofanymaterialsuppliedspecificallyforthepurpose ofbeingenteredandexecutedonacomputersystem,forexclusiveusebythepurchaserofthework. Printedonacid-freepaper SpringerispartofSpringerScience+BusinessMedia(www.springer.com) Contents 1 PhilosophyandEngineering:SettingtheStage . . . . . . . . . . . 1 IbovandePoel PartI Philosophy 2 DistinguishingArchitectsfromEngineers:APilotStudyin DifferencesBetweenEngineersandOtherTechnologists . . . . . . 15 MichaelDavis 3 TheRiseofPhilosophyofEngineeringintheEastandtheWest . . 31 LiBo-cong 4 MultipleFacetsofPhilosophyandEngineering . . . . . . . . . . . 41 PaulT.Durbin 5 ComparingApproachestothePhilosophyofEngineering: IncludingtheLinguisticPhilosophicalApproach . . . . . . . . . . 49 CarlMitchamandRobertMackey 6 Focussing Philosophy of Engineering: AnalysesofTechnicalFunctionsandBeyond. . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 PieterE.Vermaas 7 Philosophy,Engineering,andtheSciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 JosephC.Pitt 8 EngineeringScienceasa“DisciplineoftheParticular”? TypesofGeneralizationinEngineeringSciences . . . . . . . . . . 83 MarcJ.deVries 9 HowtheModelsofEngineeringTelltheTruth . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 ZacharyPirtle 10 LimitstoSystemsEngineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 MaartenM.Ottens v vi Contents PartII Ethics 11 IntegrityandtheEthicalResponsibilitiesofEngineers . . . . . . . 125 AlastairS.Gunn 12 PrioritisingPeople:OutlineofanAspirationalEngineeringEthic . 135 W.RichardBowen 13 EthicalPrinciplesforEngineersinaGlobalEnvironment . . . . . 147 HeinzC.Luegenbiehl 14 ProfessionalEthicsWithoutaProfession:AFrenchView onEngineeringEthics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 ChristelleDidier 15 Imagining Worlds: Responsible Engineering Under ConditionsofEpistemicOpacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 MarkCoeckelbergh 16 TransferringResponsibilityThroughUsePlans . . . . . . . . . . . 189 AukePols 17 DesignProblemsandEthics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 WadeRobison 18 EthicsinInnovation:CooperationandTension . . . . . . . . . . . 215 MerledeKreuk,IbovandePoel,SjoerdD.Zwart,and MarkC.M.vanLoosdrecht 19 Teaching Ethics toEngineering Students: From Clean ConceptstoDirtyTricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 OttoKroesenandSybrandvanderZwaag 20 ACollaborativePlatformforExperimentsinEthics andTechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 PeterDanielson PartIII Reflection 21 WhyPhilosophy?WhyNow?EngineeringRespondstothe CrisisofaCreativeEra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255 DavidE.Goldberg 22 AWorldofThingsNotFacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 NatashaMcCarthy 23 ArchitectingEngineeringSystems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 JoelMoses 24 BitsDon’tHaveErrorBars:UpwardConceptualization andDownwardApproximation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 RussAbbott Contents vii 25 MetaphysicsofEngineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 TaftH.Broome 26 EngineeringDeterminacy:TheExclusivenessofTechnology andthePresenceoftheIndeterminate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 AlbrechtFritzsche 27 Quo Vadis, Humans? Engineering the Survival of the HumanSpecies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 BillyVaughnKoen 28 TheFocalEngineeringExperience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 GeneMoriarty Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355 Contributors RussAbbott DepartmentofComputerScience,CaliforniaStateUniversity,Los Angeles,CA,USA,[email protected] LiBo-cong DepartmentofSocialSciences,GraduateUniversityofChinese AcademyofSciences,Beijing,China,[email protected] W.RichardBowen i-NewtonWales,Caswell,Swansea,UK, [email protected] TaftH.Broome HowardUniversity,Washington,DC,USA, [email protected] MarkCoeckelbergh DepartmentofPhilosophy,UniversityofTwente,Enschede, TheNetherlands,[email protected] PeterDanielson UniversityofBritishColumbia,CentreforAppliedEthics, Vancouver,BC,Canada,[email protected] MichaelDavis CenterfortheStudyofEthicsintheProfessions,IllinoisInstitute ofTechnology,Chicago,IL,USA,[email protected] MerledeKreuk SchoolofAppliedScience,DepartmentofBiotechnology,TU Delft,Delft,TheNetherlands,[email protected] MarcJ.deVries EindhovenUniversityofTechnology,Eindhoven;Delft UniversityofTechnology,Delft,TheNetherlands,[email protected] ChristelleDidier Départementd’éthique,UniversitéCatholiquedeLille,France, [email protected] PaulT.Durbin PhilosophyDepartmentandCenterforEnergyandEnvironmental Policy,UniversityofDelaware,Newark,DE,USA,[email protected] AlbrechtFritzsche TUDarmstadt,Fachbereich2,InstitutfuerPhilosophie, Schloss,Darmstadt,Germany,[email protected] DavidE.Goldberg DepartmentofIndustrialandEnterpriseSystemsEngineering, UniversityofIllinoisatUrbana-Champaign,Urbana,IL,USA,[email protected] ix x Contributors AlastairS.Gunn DepartmentofPhilosophyandReligiousStudies,University ofWaikato,Hamilton,NewZealand,[email protected] BillyVaughnKoen TheUniversityofTexas/Austin,TX,USA, [email protected] OttoKroesen DepartmentofPhilosophy,TUDelft,TheDelft,TheNetherlands, [email protected] HeinzC.Luegenbiehl Rose-HulmanInstituteofTechnology,TerreHaute,IN, USA,[email protected] RobertMackey Radford,VA,USA NatashaMcCarthy TheRoyalAcademyofEngineering,CarltonHouseTerrace, London,UK,[email protected] CarlMitcham LiberalArtsandInternationalStudies,ColoradoSchoolofMines, Golden,CO,USA,[email protected] GeneMoriarty DepartmentofElectricalEngineering,SanJoseStateUniversity, SanJosé,California,USA,[email protected] JoelMoses EngineeringSystemsDivisionandElectricalEngineeringand ComputerScienceDepartment,MIT,Cambridge,Massachusetts,USA, [email protected] MaartenM.Ottens DelftUniversityofTechnology,Delft,TheNetherlands; JohnsHopkinsUniversity,Baltimore,MD,USA,[email protected] ZacharyPirtle ConsortiumforScience,PolicyandOutcomes,CenterforEarth SystemsEngineeringandManagement,ArizonaStateUniversity,Tempe,Arizona, USA,[email protected] JosephC.Pitt PhilosophyandofScienceandTechnologyStudies,VirginiaTech, Virginia,USA,[email protected] AukePols DepartmentofIE&IS,SectionofPhilosophyandEthics,Eindhoven UniversityofTechnology,Eindhoven,TheNetherlands,[email protected] WadeRobison RochesterInstituteofTechnology,Rochester,NY,USA, [email protected] IbovandePoel SchoolofTechnology,PolicyandManagement,Departmentof Philosophy,TUDelft,Delft,TheNetherlands,[email protected] SybrandvanderZwaag DelftUniversityofTechnology,Delft,TheNetherlands, [email protected] MarkC.M.vanLoosdrecht SchoolofAppliedScience,Departmentof Biotechnology,TUDelft,Delft,TheNetherlands,[email protected]