The concept of engineering is problematic. Despite of the ancient practices of engineering, may be as old as humanity, engineering recently appeared as an academic discipline: engineering studies in universities can be traced back to the nineteenth century. Engineering has been defined as a practice, a process, a profession, and the application of scientific knowledge. However, if engineering is the application of scientific knowledge, there is a tacit assertion of the impossibility to count with proper engineering knowledge, leading to the impossibility, or at least the difficulty, for engineering to own a proper body of knowledge and the rational possibility of doctoral studies in engineering. The main concern in this research is to state a conceptual definition of engineering enough strong that serves as a building block for ontological and epistemological research in philosophy of engineering. It is shown that science and engineering pursue different objectives and produces different results. Therefore, it is possible to make a distinction between one and the other. In this dissertation, epistemological elements of engineering are set apart from ontological elements that compose the concept of engineering to emphasize its nature and the genuine possibility to produce new knowledge of engineering independent of scientific knowledge. However, it is also recognized that even methodologically different, science and engineering are intertwined and interdependent, therefore scientific knowledge does not necessarily precede engineering knowledge. Consequently, there is no hierarchical relationship between science and engineering.
| Published in | International Journal of Philosophy (Volume 10, Issue 4) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12 |
| Page(s) | 130-137 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Philosophy of Engineering, Definition of Engineering, Epistemology of Engineering, Engineering Knowledge
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APA Style
Orlando Lopez-Cruz. (2022). An Essential Definition of Engineering to Support Engineering Research in the Twenty-First Century. International Journal of Philosophy, 10(4), 130-137. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12
ACS Style
Orlando Lopez-Cruz. An Essential Definition of Engineering to Support Engineering Research in the Twenty-First Century. Int. J. Philos. 2022, 10(4), 130-137. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12
AMA Style
Orlando Lopez-Cruz. An Essential Definition of Engineering to Support Engineering Research in the Twenty-First Century. Int J Philos. 2022;10(4):130-137. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12,
author = {Orlando Lopez-Cruz},
title = {An Essential Definition of Engineering to Support Engineering Research in the Twenty-First Century},
journal = {International Journal of Philosophy},
volume = {10},
number = {4},
pages = {130-137},
doi = {10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijp.20221004.12},
abstract = {The concept of engineering is problematic. Despite of the ancient practices of engineering, may be as old as humanity, engineering recently appeared as an academic discipline: engineering studies in universities can be traced back to the nineteenth century. Engineering has been defined as a practice, a process, a profession, and the application of scientific knowledge. However, if engineering is the application of scientific knowledge, there is a tacit assertion of the impossibility to count with proper engineering knowledge, leading to the impossibility, or at least the difficulty, for engineering to own a proper body of knowledge and the rational possibility of doctoral studies in engineering. The main concern in this research is to state a conceptual definition of engineering enough strong that serves as a building block for ontological and epistemological research in philosophy of engineering. It is shown that science and engineering pursue different objectives and produces different results. Therefore, it is possible to make a distinction between one and the other. In this dissertation, epistemological elements of engineering are set apart from ontological elements that compose the concept of engineering to emphasize its nature and the genuine possibility to produce new knowledge of engineering independent of scientific knowledge. However, it is also recognized that even methodologically different, science and engineering are intertwined and interdependent, therefore scientific knowledge does not necessarily precede engineering knowledge. Consequently, there is no hierarchical relationship between science and engineering.},
year = {2022}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - An Essential Definition of Engineering to Support Engineering Research in the Twenty-First Century AU - Orlando Lopez-Cruz Y1 - 2022/11/29 PY - 2022 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12 DO - 10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12 T2 - International Journal of Philosophy JF - International Journal of Philosophy JO - International Journal of Philosophy SP - 130 EP - 137 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-7455 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20221004.12 AB - The concept of engineering is problematic. Despite of the ancient practices of engineering, may be as old as humanity, engineering recently appeared as an academic discipline: engineering studies in universities can be traced back to the nineteenth century. Engineering has been defined as a practice, a process, a profession, and the application of scientific knowledge. However, if engineering is the application of scientific knowledge, there is a tacit assertion of the impossibility to count with proper engineering knowledge, leading to the impossibility, or at least the difficulty, for engineering to own a proper body of knowledge and the rational possibility of doctoral studies in engineering. The main concern in this research is to state a conceptual definition of engineering enough strong that serves as a building block for ontological and epistemological research in philosophy of engineering. It is shown that science and engineering pursue different objectives and produces different results. Therefore, it is possible to make a distinction between one and the other. In this dissertation, epistemological elements of engineering are set apart from ontological elements that compose the concept of engineering to emphasize its nature and the genuine possibility to produce new knowledge of engineering independent of scientific knowledge. However, it is also recognized that even methodologically different, science and engineering are intertwined and interdependent, therefore scientific knowledge does not necessarily precede engineering knowledge. Consequently, there is no hierarchical relationship between science and engineering. VL - 10 IS - 4 ER -
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