Conclusion: From philosophy to engineering

Abstract

We draw together the ideas of Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Michael Polanyi and Martin Heidegger that are relevant to engineering on practice, context, ethics, models and failure; and then identify some areas that have not been explored in depth, such as uncertainty, sensitivity, hierarchy, emergence and approximation. We next clarify the way this book has engaged with science; and suggest that engaging with the arts, social sciences and religion could also be fruitful to obtain perspectives on engineering. We end by encouraging philosophy departments to nurture the discipline of the philosophy of engineering; engineering departments to formalize practice based knowledge; and individual engineering readers to delve into the writings of the philosophers themselves. We propose tentatively that Heidegger could be a patron philosopher for engineers.