Engineering Design in Scientific Knowledge

Abstract

There is a profound isomorphism between the activity of an engineer and that of a scientist. The former starts from a design project, that is, a functional description of the object to be designed, and proceeds to implementing it. The latter acts in many ways analogously in dealing with a certain empirically given phenomenon which has to be explained by designing a mechanism of its coming-to-be and functioning. One never says that a certain theory has been discovered – one usually speaks about forming a theory. Similarly, one does not discover but rather offers or forms a classification, zoning, periodization. To cognize a given phenomenon means either to construct its model or to develop a project of constructing the object itself. Whether such a project is commensurable with human capacities, is not taken into account: what really matters is whether a given phenomenon can be modeled in principle. To use a stronger formulation of the same thesis, one may say that we construct not only theories or classifications but, quite as well, the objects of study or even what we call the facts themselves. This latter role is taken by any activity brought to accomplishment, such as experiment, which has been planned in advance and designed in accordance with a certain fixed goal.