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The Philosophy of Science and Engineering Design

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Authors:
  1. Dingmar van Eck

    1. Centre for logic and Philosophy of Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

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  • Identifies essential conceptual common ground between the philosophy of science and philosophy of engineering
  • Employs conceptual tools from the philosophy of science to address issues in the philosophy of technical artifacts and technical functions, and in the philosophy of engineering design
  • Analyzes in detail the explanatory utility of function ascriptions and elaborates on conceptual tools for the testing of design methods
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Philosophy (BRIEFSPHILOSOPH)

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Table of contents (4 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Assessing the Explanatory Relevance of Ascriptions of Technical Functions

    • Dingmar van Eck, Erik Weber
    Pages 1-15

  3. Mechanistic Explanation in Engineering Science

    • Dingmar van Eck
    Pages 17-38

  4. Assessing the Roles of Design Representations: Counterfactual Understanding and Technical Advantage Predictions

    • Dingmar van Eck
    Pages 39-56

  5. On Testing Engineering Design Methods: Explanation, Reverse Engineering, and Constitutive Relevance

    • Dingmar van Eck
    Pages 57-75
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Keywords

About this book

This book discusses the relationship between the philosophy of science and philosophy of engineering, and demonstrates how philosophers of engineering design as well as design researchers can benefit from the conceptual toolkit that the philosophy of science has to offer. 

In this regard, it employs conceptual tools from the philosophical literature on scientific explanation to address key issues in engineering design and philosophy of engineering design. Specifically, the book focuses on assessing the explanatory value of function ascriptions used in engineering design and philosophy of technical functions; on elaborating the structure of explanation in engineering design; on assessing the role and value of design representations in engineering design and philosophy thereof; and on elaborating means for the testing of design methods.

Presenting a novel and effective approach to tackling key issues in the field, philosophers of engineering and design alike willgreatly benefit from this book.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Centre for logic and Philosophy of Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Dingmar van Eck

About the author

Dr. Dingmar van Eck currently works as a fulltime (postdoctoral) researcher on issues primarily related to scientific explanation in a variety of scientific fields, including engineering science, biology, cognitive and neuroscience. Before that, he executed a four-year research project on philosophical theories of technical functions, and on functional modelling and explanation in engineering science and practice. Dr. Dingmar van Eck has published numerous papers on these topics in both philosophy and engineering journals.

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