Is There More to Engineering that Applied Science?

Abstract: This thesis examines the idea that engineering is an applied science, and what it means for the practice of engineering, particularly in the context of complex socio-technical systems. It traces the social history of engineering as a profession in the Anglo-Saxon context and the development of a ‘scientific ideology’ in engineering education which replaced the practice based learning of the shop-taught engineers. The success in the application of reductionist approaches to engineering analysis of complicated designs has reinforced the belief that engineering science provides an understanding of the world as it is. In the context of complex systems, this over-confidence in the epistemology of engineering science poses a risk in itself. Paradoxically, acknowledging the uncertainty, subjectivity and methodological imperfection in our approach to assessing the risks inherent in technology may provide most benefit.