What Engineers Know

Abstract

To say that what engineers know constitutes engineering knowledge, just as what scientists know constitutes scientific knowledge, is a misleading way of expressing what ought to be a truism. For surely what constitutes scientific knowledge exceeds not only what one scientist knows but not even the sum total of what all scientists know – since there are scientific truths that no scientists may remember at any given time. Thus, Mendel’s laws were forgotten until they were “rediscovered”. On the other hand, it may be the case that the total of scientific knowledge is less than the sum of what all scientists know since what scientists know is not uniformly consistent. That is, what some scientists know is sometimes at odds with what other scientists know – perhaps even contradictory – hence a reduction in total knowledge.