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On Epistemic Diversity of Engineering and Engineering Education

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering Division Technical Session 1

Tagged Division

Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

Page Count

9

DOI

10.18260/1-2--30847

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/30847

Download Count

741

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Paper Authors

biography

Soheil Fatehiboroujeni University of California, Merced Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-5129-7428

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Soheil FatehiBoroujeni is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Merced. His research interests are in nonlinear mechanics of biological filaments and uncertainty quantification. He has been also actively involved with education research and is currently working on a project on the philosophy of engineering and its pedagogical implications at the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning (CETL) in UC Merced.

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Abstract

The philosophy of science and the philosophy of technology are now both established academic disciplines, but can either be a surrogate for the philosophy of engineering? How can we justify the philosophy of engineering? In an attempt to answer these questions, we use the term epistemic diversity to represent the multi-dimensional nature of engineering knowledge, which is characteristically distinct from other sciences. The role of design in engineering and its socio-historical “situatedness” are also discussed to shed light on the knowledge of engineering and what engineers do. Drawing from the works of Isreal Scheffler, we stress why addressing the philosophy of engineering is a rational necessity for the discipline of engineering education and why in lack of systematic training, emergence of epistemically incoherent or dogmatic attitudes is possible.

Fatehiboroujeni, S. (2018, June), On Epistemic Diversity of Engineering and Engineering Education Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30847

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