[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-40780-en":3,"doc-seo-40780-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":11,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":13,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},40780,2336464648746,"Skyler","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c",2,"Literature","Samuel C Florman The Existential Pleasures of Engineering St Martin’s","A speculative philosophical essay examining what it means to be an engineer in the late twentieth century, when the profession both achieves unprecedented successes and faces accusations of endangering civilization. The work frames engineering as practical application of pure science via creative design, contrasts it with mechanics and technician roles, and positions technology as broader than engineering. It introduces existentialism through rejection of dogma and reliance on lived passions and intuition, setting the stage for later arguments.","The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please [notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy](notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy).  \nContents  \nTitle Page  \nCopyright Notice  \nDedication  \nPreface to the First Edition  \nIntroduction to the Second Edition  \nPart One  \n1.“What was Troy to This?”  \n2. Decline and Fall  \n3. Conscience, Error and Responsibility  \nPart Two  \n4. Antitechnology  \n5.“I Refute It Thus”  \n6. A Dangerous Delusion  \nPart Three  \n7. Of Dullards and Demigods  \n8. Toward an Existential Philosophy of Engineering  \n9. The Existential Engineer  \n10.“Look Long on an Engine. It Is Sweet to the Eyes.”  \n11.“Then was I Carried Beyond Pleasure.”  \nPostscript  \n12. Small Is Dubious  \n13. Women and Engineering  \n14. The Engineering View  \n15. Technology and the Tragic View  \nAcknowledgments  \nAcknowledgments  \nNotes  \nAlso by Samuel C. Florman  \nCopyright  \nFOR DAVID AND JONATHAN  \nin 1976, and again with love in 1994  \nPREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION  \nSocrates said that the unconsidered life is not worth living. If the statement is valid, as I believe it is, then those of us who are engineers in the final quarter of the twentieth century are confronted with certain questions of compelling interest. What is the nature of the engineering experience in our time? What is it like to be an engineer at the moment that the profession has achieved unprecedented successes, and simultaneously is being accused of having brought our civilization to the brink of ruin?  \nHaving posed these questions, it occurs to me that the answers are not without interest to all of us—engineers, would-be engineers, and concerned citizens in a world where engineering, for better or for worse, plays an increasingly important role.  \nThis speculative essay is an attempt to find answers to these questions, and, as it turns out, to challenge some of the conventional answers that are being given by others both within the profession and without.  \nWhat I have written is brief enough to speak for itself and does not require any formal introduction. But I do think that it would be helpful to make a few comments in advance about three key words which will be recurring in what is to follow. The words are engineering, technology, and existentialism.  \nEngineers and writers about engineering are constantly lamenting the confusion that is supposed to prevail in the public mind about the meaning of the word engineering. I believe that such confusion is much less widespread than it used to be. For example, it is hardly necessary to be forever explaining that professional engineers do not wear striped caps and drive locomotives. It is generally recognized, I think, that engineering is “the art or science of making practical application of the knowledge of pure sciences.” In other words, although engineers are not scientists, they study the sciences and use them to solve problems of practical interest, most typically by the process that we call creative design. Engineers are not mechanics, nor are they technicians. They are members of a profession. Although this profession has its roots in the earliest development of the human species, it only achieved recognition as a “learned profession” in the mid-nineteenth century, when scientific principles were first applied systematically to engineering problems, and when engineering schools and societies began to be established. In this book I have not attempted to describe in any detail what engineers do. Rather, my interest is in how engineers think and feel about what they do, and in the more general aspects of what it means to be an engineer.  \nTechnology, like engineering, is a word that is constantly being defined and redefined. However, it is a word of such ","cbCaigFvwri6Woxu","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaigFvwri6Woxu","pdf",934987,1,122,"English","en",105,"# Contents\n## Part One\n## Part Two\n## Part Three\n# Postscript\n# Acknowledgments\n# Notes","[{\"question\":\"What central questions does the preface raise about engineering in the late twentieth century?\",\"answer\":\"It asks what the engineering experience is like and what it means to be an engineer when the profession is both highly successful and blamed for putting civilization at risk.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the author define engineering and explain who engineers are?\",\"answer\":\"Engineering is presented as the art or science of applying pure-science knowledge to practical problems, typically through creative design, and engineers are described as members of a profession rather than scientists, mechanics, or technicians.\"},{\"question\":\"What does “existentialism” mean in the author’s usage?\",\"answer\":\"It is tied to the idea that 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central questions does the preface raise about engineering in the late twentieth century?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"It asks what the engineering experience is like and what it means to be an engineer when the profession is both highly successful and blamed for putting civilization at risk.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"How does the author define engineering and explain who engineers are?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"Engineering is presented as the art or science of applying pure-science knowledge to practical problems, typically through creative design, and engineers are described as members of a profession rather than scientists, mechanics, or technicians.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"What does “existentialism” mean in the author’s usage?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"It is tied to the idea that existential thought comes before formal philosophical theory, rejecting dogma—especially scientific dogma—and grounding understanding in passions, 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