But you go to a great school, not for knowledge so much Johnson, William C. "Eton Reform Vol II: Cory, William Johnson, 1823-1892." Internet Archive. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2014. <http://www.archive.org/details/etonreform02cory>. p. 7 LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS 1861
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In discussing the nature of engineering Taft Broome used the phrase "take that leap in a systematic way". This brought to mind Kirkegaard's Leap of Faith. It seems to me that the essence of good praxis judgement is to be able to take the Kirkegaard Leap of Faith in a systematic way.
Engineering Judgement is a systematic approach to taking the leap of making an engineering decision to apply the flawed analogy of scientific theory to physical reality with faith that the decision will lead to a good safe desirous result. [Taft Broome made this statement in an MIT Opencourseware lecture. Broome, Taft. "20: Ethical Terminology." MIT OpenCourseWare. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 18 Aug. 2014. <http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/engineering-systems-division/esd-932-engineering-ethics-spring-2006/audio-lectures/20-ethical-terminology/>. Audio Lecture] ‘Changing the natural world to make it better meet the needs of mankind.’ Dr Chris Elliott, FREng
Elliot, Chris. "Engineering as Synthesis - Doing Right Things and Doing Things Right." Philosophy of Engineering Volume 1 of the Proceedings of a Series of Seminars Held at The Royal Academy of Engineering. Vol. 1. London: Royal Academy of Engineering, 2010. 54. Web. Engineering is: "The specialty of engineering is a learned discipline involving the systematic approach to changing the physical world in response to certain kinds of imperatives that are knowledge deficient and values deficient. Particularly exigent imperatives." My paraphrase of Taft Broome's definition of engineering: Broome, Taft. "20: Ethical Terminology." MIT OpenCourseWare. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, n.d. Web. 18 Aug. 2014. <http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/engineering-systems-division/esd-932-engineering-ethics-spring-2006/audio-lectures/20-ethical-terminology/>. Audio Lecture I ask people things but they don't tell me.
I tell people things but the don't listen. I give people instructions but they don't follow them. But when it flies to Hell, who do you think that they expect to fix it? Engineering reports and deliverables are, to my mind, their own genre of literature with unique conventions. The need for technical accuracy, control of risk, and legal considerations are the primary factors governing style and tone followed closely by clarity and avoidance of ambiguity.
As Murphey would put it, "If they can misunderstand it, they will misunderstand it, at the worst time and in the most foolish way." Reports, specifications and other deliverables must be written so that they can be understood by a contractor. Yet if it is misunderstood, liability will be determined by whether an attorney believes that the contractor should have been able to understand it. What an attorney thinks is understandable versus what a contractor thinks is understandable are two entirely different things. I grew up in Newell NC, a great place. I saw people discover Newell and fill it up and smother it out. I worked with Native American people almost 30 years. They had a great place to live. Then they saw people discover it and smother it out. If you find a great place, for heaven's sake don't let the word out.
When I was a kid it would take me as long as an hour (sometimes more) to look up a word in the dictionary. On my way to finding the word I would find other words that were too interesting to skip, especially if the dictionary had those little pictures. The internet is this problem on steroids.
"To inquire into what God has made is the main function of the imagination. It is aroused by facts, is nourished by facts, seeks for higher and yet higher laws in those facts; but refuses to regard science as the sole interpreter of nature, or the laws of science as the only region of discovery... .... Lord Bacon tells us that a prudent question is the half of knowledge. Whence comes this prudent question? we repeat. And we answer, From the imagination. It is the imagination that suggests in what direction to make the new inquiry--which, should it cast no immediate light on the answer sought, can yet hardly fail to be a step towards final discovery. Every experiment has its origin in hypothesis; without the scaffolding of hypothesis, the house of science could never arise. And the construction of any hypothesis whatever is the work of the imagination. The man who cannot invent will never discover. The imagination often gets a glimpse of the law itself long before it is or can be ascertained to be a law."
George McDonald The Imagination: Its Function and its Culture First published 1867 in a Dish of Orts "Art without engineering is dreaming. Engineering without art is calculating."
Steven K. Roberts "But investors, like bank robbers, go where the money is. As long as the ROI [Return on Investment] is higher in [lobbying] Washington [politicians] than on Wall Street or Main Street, money's going to flow here. Perhaps the scandal isn't that people are buying political favors; it's that they're getting them so cheaply and easily that the rest of us have hardly even noticed." Rich Tucker As long as the current system of campaign finance is in place, lobbying will the the best investment in America. ~Jeanene https://www.facebook.com/coffeeparty/photos/a.313395813326.193473.304981108326/10152881137328327/?&theater
I don't know who Jeanene is but this is the link. The ability to wait is the trait most important for the economic good of the individual. The second-most is enjoyment of having rather than spending. It is only through these that you can turn the power of compounded interest (the eighth wonder of the world) to your advantage rather than detriment.
"An easily understood, workable falsehood is more useful than a complex, incomprehensible truth. Complex problems have simple, easy-to-understand wrong answers." Murphey
“Calvin: The more you know, the harder it is to take decisive action. Once you are informed, you start seeing complexities and shades of gray. You realize nothing is as clear as it first appears. Ultimately, knowledge is paralyzing. Being a man of action, I cannot afford to take that risk. Hobbes: You're ignorant, but at least you act on it.” "paralysis by analysis", vs. "extinct by instinct"
Marx, Engels and Lenin were extremely perspicacious diagnosticians. They, however, proceeded to cure society's ills by bleeding its vital humors.
Understanding the state of affairs is a different skill than determining the optimal course of action. The 'sentimentalist fallacy' is to shed tears over abstract justice and generosity, beauty, etc., and never to know these qualities when you meet them in the street, because there the circumstances make them vulgar.
William James. Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (Kindle Locations 1622-1623). Truth is the thing that produces the sense data by which it is comprehended. Only that thing, that source is true.
The sense data proceeds from truth but is not truth in itself. Descriptions of the thing, or descriptions of the sense data, whether verbal or mathematical, are not true. They are approximations or models of the truth useful in communicating but are at most mere analogies. An analogy being a familiar thing set along side an unfamiliar thing. The unfamiliar thing being described as being in some ways like, and in other ways unlike, the familiar object. How do you teach a fish that water is wet?
"Good job." I said
"That wasn't me. I can do nothing. God did it." He replied. "Well, you still did a good job." "I can't take any pride in that. I am just a sinner, with no merit of my own." "Right, You are just a tool in God's hand. Just like a hammer a carpenter used to build a house." "Yeah, it's wrong to feel pride." "Well remember, there you were in the hardware store, lying in a bin with all the other hammers. When God reached in and grabbed a hammer to use building this house, he grabbed you. True, its not because you were any better than the other hammers. God could have used any hammer he wanted, but for this house he used you. So feel good." I want A.
I can't have A. But I can have B instead. Can my happiness with B ever completely satisfy my desire for A? If no, my continued unfulfilled desire for A will never allow me to be happy. Like Sweeny Todd wielding Occam's Razor.
Engineers, more than anyone else, are equipped to explore and understand the relationship of the ideal Euclidean view of the world and the actual phenomenon of the world as we experience it. They live in that gap, performing the art of applying mathematical and geometrical models to real world problems; developing the good judgment to make safe and economical decisions to benefit the public.
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AuthorSemi-Retired Civil Engineer currently a student of Philosophy, Literature and Art in the context of a Great Books Curriculum at Gutenberg College Categories
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