dc.contributor.author | Strongman, Luke, Dr. | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2011-04-09T01:03:32Z | |
dc.date.available | 2011-04-09T01:03:32Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2010-11-12 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://dspace.unimap.edu.my/123456789/11514 | |
dc.description | The 2nd International Conference on the Roles of Humanities and Social Science in Engineering (ICoHSE 2010) organized by Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), 12th - 14th November 2010 at Bayview Beach Resort, Penang, Malaysia. | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | Recent critical focus on the anthropogenic arguments regarding the threats to the
sustainability of biosphere highlight the role of engineering in maintaining the structural
integrity of the human environment. However, the discipline of engineering is not without
larger contextual and methodological problems that tend to undermine the perception of
its benefit to society. These include tendencies towards utilitarianism, the irreconcilability
of means vs. ends rationale, and the potential for difference-blind solutions to technical
problems which ignore the possible harmful effects on the environment which extend beyond
in-built cost-benefit analyses. This paper intends to reconcile scientific and humanistic
views through a philosophical inquiry and argues that engineering is informed by a context
that requires a counter-balancing perspective which accommodates holism, environmental
compatibility, lateral and longer-term thinking as well as awareness of humanity, culture
and society. Inclusion of humanities subjects within the engineering curriculum positively
underscores human factors in technological problems and solutions and equips engineers
with a cultural vocabulary and understanding. The argument will be made that a relationship
between the humanities and engineering that resembles the Renaissance concept of
the ‘artifex’ (or the attempt to harmonise the human and the technological) is both necessary
and desirable for the enhancement, understanding and development of both disciplines.
Furthermore, this paper demonstrates ways in which basic philosophical principles can
contribute to critical thinking within the engineering discipline. This paper uses three
humanities texts, Max Frisch’s Homo Faber (1959), Don de Lillo’s The Body Artist (2001),
and the film Contact (1997) based on Carl Sagan’s book (1985) to problematise issues of
technology and humanism and to explore the relationship of engineering to the humanities. | en_US |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) | en_US |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | Proceedings of the International Conference on the Roles of the Humanities and Social Sciences in Engineering 2010 (ICoHSE 2010) | en_US |
dc.subject | Engineering | en_US |
dc.subject | Humanities | en_US |
dc.subject | Science and technology | en_US |
dc.subject | International Conference on the Roles of Humanities and Social Science in Engineering (ICoHSE 2010) | en_US |
dc.subject | Social sciences | en_US |
dc.title | The ‘artifex’: Synergies between engineering and the humanities | en_US |
dc.type | Working Paper | en_US |
dc.publisher.department | Centre for Communication Skills and Entrepreneurship | en_US |
dc.contributor.url | Luke.Strongman@OpenPolytechnic.ac.nz | en_US |