Models in Science and Engineering: Imagining, Designing and Evaluating Representations

How can one learn about particular phenomena by using models? This is the central question of the present book. One brief answer is that one can learn about phenomena by using models if these models represent the phenomena. A longer answer will be presented in the individual chapters. Answering this question involves not only (partially)...

Failure: Analysis of an Engineering Concept

This thesis is an attempt to clarify a concept we are all familiar with, engineers and non-engineers alike. It shows that, behind the first impression of familiarity, there is a wide range of intuitions about failure which are not easily reconciled. While the ensuing ambiguities and lack of clarity may be tolerated in ordinary circumstances,...

Functional Decomposition: On Rationality and Incommensurability in Engineering

The concept of technical function is a key concept to describe technical artifacts and artifacts-to-be-designed. Engineers often give such descriptions in terms of functional decomposition models, which represent relationships between functions and sets of other (sub) functions. Despite the importance of the concept of function there is no...

Respect for autonomy and technological risks

Technological developments can undermine the autonomy of the individual. Autonomy is one's ability to make and act upon decisions according to one's own moral framework. Respect for autonomy dictates that risks should not be imposed on the individual without her consent. Technological developments can bring about risks, which often confront the...

Reconstructing design, explaining artifacts: Philosophical reflections on the design and explanation of technical artifacts

Philosophers of science have by and large neglected technology. In this book, I have tried to do something about this lacuna by analyzing a few aspects of technical artifacts from a philosophical angle. The project was part of the research program "The Dual Nature of Technical Artifacts" based at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands...

Ethical issues in engineering design safety and sustainability

The goal of this research is to obtain insight in how engineers deal with ethical issues in daily engineering design practice. It is reasonable to assume that ethical issues and the way engineers deal with them depend on characteristics of the design process. I have made use of Vincentis dimensions to characterize different design processes:...

The proper use of artefacts: A philosophical theory of the social constitution of artefact functions

Artefacts are humanly designed objects with a function. Their proper function is what they are for. This book develops a theory of these functions on the basis of the idea that artefacts are used in a social context. Current theories of artefact functions are inadequate to deal with this special character. Functions of artefacts are defined...