Sci & Educ (2017) 26:195–199

DOI 10.1007/s11191-017-9871-9

BOOK REVIEW

Philosophical, Logical and Scientific Perspectives

in Engineering Education
Zekâi Şen (2014) Philosophical, Logical and Scientific Perspectives
in Engineering. Springer, Dordrecht. ISBN: 9783319017419, 260
pages, $129.00 (hardback)

Irlan von Linsingen 1

Published online: 23 February 2017

# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017

In this work, Zekai Şen, a professor at Istanbul Technical University, addresses aspects of
philosophical, logical, and scientific principles deemed as important for both engineering
education/training and engineering activities. The contents of the book are currently used in
an ongoing graduate course entitled BEngineering Research Methodology^ at the School of
Aeronautics and Astronautics at Istanbul Technical University, and also in Civil Engineering
undergraduate programs.
The author observes that Bengineering career is defined in many ways, but all definitions
have a common point that engineering practice benefits from the end product of scientific
research, which excludes the artistic facets and confines engineering into a form where the
philosophical, logical, and scientific dynamics do not play a significant role^. (p. vii) In
opposition to that fact, he argues that innovations in engineering, ideas, and descriptions that
lead to intelligent design and planning should include ingredients of the philosophy of science
and logic in order to promote better conceptions, hypotheses, artistic imaginations, and their
implementations. He also argues that, in the past, in order to plan, design, build, maintain, and
operate engineering structures, engineers had innovative practical skills and artistic creativity,
drawing on philosophy and esthetics, and they made use of logical inferences and even
language without any mathematical equations. Only later did education and training programs
led engineers to abandon such skills, placing particular emphasis on analytical and numerical
methods, and considering regular and classical deductive inferences as standard solutions.
In the preface, Şen affirms that in engineering education nowadays, the philosophy of
engineering is virtually nonexistent in the curricula. He also considers that a vague presence of
philosophical thought in the field of engineering can be due to the fact that engineering and

* Irlan von Linsingen

irlan.von@gmail.com

1
Mechanical Engineering Department and Graduate Studies Program in Scientific and Technological
Education, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil
196 I. von Linsingen

technology are considered as distinct disciplines, Bbut there are occasional interferences
between the two, which transfers some philosophical aspects into engineering thinking,
because some engineers and numerically trained technicians took active involvement in
technological developments such as in the first atom bomb production^ (p. vii).
The author considers, too, that most engineering students worldwide cannot write suitable
reports or papers because they lack efficient philosophical and logical bases, as they are mainly
empowered by logical, numerical, and mathematical foundations throughout their undergrad-
uate programs.
In this sense, he proposes that philosophy and logic be (re) introduced in engineering
training so as to improve current education and training programs, which currently emphasize
analytical and numerical methods at the expense of innovative practices and creative skills—
which are so important for engineering.
While considering that intelligence and analytical skills are essential elements of mass
production, he believes that the application of clear and strict rules do not provide creative
bases in engineering education. For the author, the philosophy of science brings dynamism to
the creative intelligence of engineers.
These perceptions form the argumentative basis of the book, which, in his words, empha-
sizes the importance of introducing philosophy, logic, and scientific principles into engineering
education/training. It also seeks to provide a forum for the harmonious integration between
these principles and engineering aspects, in order to move towards an effective construction of
models capable of solving a wide range of problems with different methodologies.
The author also presents and discusses a set of items (foundations, principles, and rules) that
can be helpful to construct the field of philosophy of engineering. He develops his views on
various aspects of engineering based on perceptions of philosophy (epistemology).
The book is divided into seven chapters. The introductory chapter presents an overview of
engineering, with emphasis on aspects usually associated with civil engineering, and also
addresses its interactions with philosophy, logic, science, modeling, and civilization.
Chapter 2 is devoted to discussing the elements of intelligent reasoning by presenting
a number of aspects relative to language, etymology, and the meaning of words,
sentences, thinking models (deductive, inductive, by analogy, intuitive), and approximate
reasoning. Language is treated from a perspective considering that presenting clear
expressions in words can help people understand the basic ideas. Therefore, language
is considered as the essence of understanding. However, Şen does not define the
theoretical orientation in use, and language issues can be analyzed from different
perspectives, among them French approaches to discourse analysis (Michel Pêcheux,
Eni Orlandi), for which Bclear expression^ and Bsimple words^ could be associated with
the idea of transparency, i.e., meanings would be stuck in the words and thus their
construction would not be related to contexts and cultures. This is a point of the book
that signals the need for coordination with theoretical and methodological sources of the
linguistic field, as well as for an attention to constructive discussions on language issues
in general and, more specifically, to critical discussions about the dominant meanings of
science and technology in engineering. The chapter also presents the general philosoph-
ical lines of dialectical thinking, pragmatism, and rationalism. It ends with a discussion
about engineering and skepticism.
Chapter 3 discusses the interface between philosophy and engineering in order to approach
epistemological, methodological, ontological, and ethical issues through topics such as uncer-
tainty and fuzziness of philosophy, philosophical inferences in engineering, engineering and
Philosophical, Logical and Scientific Perspectives in Engineering 197

design philosophy, engineering and philosophy of science, philosophy of engineering, and

philosophical thinking steps.
Chapters 4 and 5 address the relations of engineering with logic and science. Chapter 4
deals with logic and engineering by conceptually addressing logic, logical inference, classical
and symbolic logic, rational thought and principles of fuzzy logic (thinking stages in fuzzy
logic, imagination and perception, fuzzy reasoning), and logical rules. Chapter 5 discusses the
relationship between science and engineering, considering aspects of scientific perception and
thought; philosophy of science and engineering; science, skepticism and engineering; princi-
ples of modeling and philosophy in engineering; rationality matrix; steps of mathematical
modeling.
Chapter 6 is devoted to education and engineering, under the premise that the training of
engineers is based on a pedagogical orientation that favors imitation, memorization, unques-
tionable information without interactive debate and without critical thinking. The chapter
considers that engineers try to find solutions as already planned procedures, algorithms, and
formulations, and currently through internet and software resources. The reason for this is that
engineering education institutions choose to use practical static and unproductive methods,
based on the use of algorithms and software, rather than generating information and scientific
knowledge.
According to the author, this educational direction Bmay kill the ambitious willingness for
information generation^ (p. 193); thus, the artistic side of engineering has become increasingly
weaker. For the author, computer software transformed engineering education into a stagnant
automatic routine procedure without mental, rational, and logical inferences. In turn, engi-
neering education systems eliminate principles of philosophical thinking and, thus, the career
of an engineer moves away from artistic and innovative aspects in many educational institu-
tions around the world. By criticizing the lack of basic philosophical principles in the
curriculum, Şen considers that logical linguistic inferences are also hindered, and hence,
engineering takes the form of repetitive steps without many inductive or deductive inferences.
For him, it is sad to see engineering education systems as training routines without any creative
activities.
Finally, Chapter 7 discusses future trends in the field of education and engineering, based
on the finding that the engineering career is present in a variety of human activities, which
requires looking at the roots of creative thinking leading to rational products.
As the author points out, the structures of engineering courses have been historically guided
by the assumption of exclusive, efficiency-focused expertise, which inhibits the formation of
creative abilities. One reason for this loss of creativity is that nontechnical capabilities are
progressively phased out of engineering training programs, and replaced by numerical and
analytical methods, so that such programs, by imposing limits on the approach to philosophy
and social studies of science and technology, have somewhat restricted creative ability and also
critical capacity.
Another aspect that is equally important and inherently related to the former is the
development of critical skills. The author addresses critical thinking as related to technical
aspects associated with applications of numerical and analytical methods that are usually
treated fairly rigidly in engineering education. Although this is a necessary condition for
proper professional practice, efficiency and quality of engineering products, critical capacity in
socio-technical terms, which involves controversies and social and/or environmentally signif-
icant problematic situations, is not addressed in its theoretical and methodological diversity.
Given the importance of the issue for expanding engineers’ perceptions of responsibility and
198 I. von Linsingen

social/environmental commitment, as well as of global and local knowledge/power relations,

the discussion of this bias of criticality can be expanded through dialog with other sources of
the field of social studies of science and technology (STS studies).
Many issues for relevant discussions about engineering and its relationship with society are
discussed in the book. More specifically, with regard to technological innovation, the author
considers that in any product (artifact), one should consider ethical, esthetic, artistic, and
cultural values; for this purpose, engineers must also have knowledge of social, ethical,
cultural, economic aspects, etc. For the author, this interdisciplinary approach is made possible
by logical and philosophical principles; therefore, the philosophy of engineering promotes Ban
additional wing^ to engineers.
The book focuses on showing that engineering can develop creative ability with training that
takes into account the philosophy of science as a drive to creativity. The author does not address,
however, perceptions of science and technology related to criticisms of neutrality, determinism,
essentiality, universality, as they have been problematized by the STS studies. In this sense, I
suggest the reader should articulate these aspects of science-technology-society relations, which
are important for the training of engineers, with related topics covered in the book.
One of the important issues arising from STS studies, relative to engineering education, is
what should be taken into account in the knowledge base for the identification and solution of
socio-technical problems. Often, what is posed as an issue for engineers may be considered a
non-issue for a particular social group. This situation requires engineers to be capable of
working with otherness, negotiating knowledge, building problems and solutions collectively.
I agree with the author on the urgent need to educate creative and critical engineers, within a
socio-technical perspective. From this perspective, societies are technological while technol-
ogies are socially configured, and all technologies are political. Thus, critical educational
approaches developed in the articulation of the fields of STS studies and Education will be
useful for the educational perspective proposed in this book.
For the reader of this book I suggest, as a complementary reading, the approaches from
philosophy of technology. In particular, I think it is worth complementing it with aspects of the
theory of (primary and secondary) instrumentalization of critical theory of technology devel-
oped by the Canadian philosopher Andrew Feenberg. After all, this theory discusses aspects of
technical rationality in terms of technical codes, considering that technology is not determined
by the criterion of efficiency and responds to various individual interests and ideologies
selected from several options. A technical code is a criterion that selects between feasible
(technically workable) alternative technical projects, in terms of a social goal. According to
Feenberg, goals are Bcoded^ in the sense of ranking items as ethically permitted or forbidden,
or esthetically better or worse, or more or less socially desirable. These types of codes reflect
the secondary instrumentalizations of the instrumentalization theory, such as ethical and
esthetic mediations. These aspects complement those related to values that Şen considers to
be important to break away with highly technical education; moreover, they are useful for
formulations of a philosophy of engineering.
University institutions have encouraged the training of engineers for technological innova-
tion and entrepreneurship, which has been perceived as a contribution to increase economic
development in a competitive world. To achieve this goal, engineers must combine in-depth
technoscientific knowledge with creativity.
Technological innovation, in the entrepreneurship perspective developed within Joseph
Schumpeter’s economic theory, is associated with the idea of creative destruction. In this
sense, it can be seen as one of the market strategies oriented towards the continuous process of
Philosophical, Logical and Scientific Perspectives in Engineering 199

changing artifacts and generating obsolescence, which encourages an increased consumption

spiral. Such a perspective can be understood as a drive to technological development. In
addition, this process of transformation/adaptation is usually associated with the idea of
evolution towards continuous improvement of life and society, which is also a controversial
issue. These are issues to be addressed in greater depth that have relationship with the themes
developed by Şen and, in this sense the book offers contributions to the engineering education.
Taking into account the inevitable incompleteness of what is said, Philosophical, Logical
and Scientific Perspectives in Engineering raises many issues that can foster academic debate
on science, technology, society, as well as substantially broaden the horizons of engineering
education.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of Interest The author declare that he have no conflict of interests.