A new book’s out from the Blythe Institute in Britain, Engineering and the Ultimate: An Interdisciplinary Investigation of Order and Design in Nature and Craft:
The discipline of engineering presumes certain foundational truths that are not reducible to mathematical formulas. It presupposes certain things about creativity, beauty, and abstraction in order to operate effectively. In short, engineering relies on philosophy. Conversely, philosophy can draw profound truths from principles derived from engineering experience. Engineering and the Ultimate crosses boundaries between a wide variety of disciplines to find truths both new and old that can be transformative to modern thought and practice.
Well, we’ll soon find out how many trolls are engineers.
The Blythe says:
While modern academia seems to adhere to Robert Frost’s adage “Good fences make good neighbors,” in reality, the demarcation of the disciplines is hardly rigid. Engineering and the Ultimate takes the reader back to a time when disciplines conversed and informed each other. The very discipline of engineering presumes certain foundational truths that are not reducible to a mathematical formula. It presupposes certain things about creativity, beauty, and translating abstract ideas into physical reality. Engineering relies on philosophy to operate. Conversely, because engineering is inherently teleological, philosophy can draw profound truths from engineering principles.
File under: Serves them right for telling all those “God is/isn’t an engineer” jokes. Now they have to read something. Whither Kindle?
Follow UD News at Twitter!