Engineering Design and Context: Moving Toward Ecosociotechnical Systems

Abstract

In the modern view generally accepted by non-scientists, science is understood to be the process, or method of accumulating abstract truths. From this perspective, truths are composed of multiple facts that may be universally applied. For example, the properties of lead are said to be the same in Zimbabwe as they are in Canada. Once scientists establish such truths, they are handedover to practical designers (e.g., engineers, architects, medical practitioners ....) to solve problems in the messy conditions of the world. Surprisingly, however, this modern dualistic view of the world is less a departure from the mystical past than was claimed by advocates of modernity. Rather, modern philosophical dualisms simply reproduce the ancient separation of mind and matter, or God and man. Such popular understanding of science suggests that we have not yet finished the Modern project.