Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences

1473 Pages·2009·13.22 MB·English

by  Anthonie W.M. Meijers

Philosophy of Technology and
Engineering Sciences
Handbook of the Philosophy of Science
General Editors
Dov Gabbay
Paul Thagard
John Woods
AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD
PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO
North Holland is an imprint of Elsevier
Philosophy of Technology and
Engineering Sciences
Volume 9
Edited by
Anthonie Meijers
Eindhoven University of Technology,
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
AMSTERDAM BOSTON HEIDELBERG LONDON NEW YORK OXFORD
PARIS SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO SINGAPORE SYDNEY TOKYO
North Holland is an imprint of Elsevier
North Holland is an imprint of Elsevier
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First edition 2009
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ISBN: 978-0-444-51667-1
For information on all North Holland publications
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GENERAL PREFACE
Dov Gabbay, Paul Thagard, and John Woods
Whenever science operates at the cutting edge of what is known, it invariably
runsintophilosophicalissuesaboutthenatureofknowledgeandreality. Scientific
controversies raise such questions as the relation of theory and experiment, the
nature of explanation, and the extent to which science can approximate to the
truth. Within particular sciences, special concerns arise about what exists and
how it can be known, for example in physics about the nature of space and time,
and in psychology about the nature of consciousness. Hence the philosophy of
science is an essential part of the scientific investigation of the world.
In recent decades, philosophy of science has become an increasingly central
part of philosophy in general. Although there are still philosophers who think
that theories of knowledge and reality can be developed by pure reflection, much
current philosophical work finds it necessary and valuable to take into account
relevant scientific findings. For example, the philosophy of mind is now closely
tied to empirical psychology, and political theory often intersects with economics.
Thus philosophy of science provides a valuable bridge between philosophical and
scientific inquiry.
More and more, the philosophy of science concerns itself not just with general
issuesaboutthenatureandvalidityofscience,butespeciallywithparticularissues
that arise in specific sciences. Accordingly, we have organized this Handbook into
many volumes reflecting the full range of current research in the philosophy of
science. We invited volume editors who are fully involved in the specific sciences,
and are delighted that they have solicited contributions by scientifically-informed
philosophers and (in a few cases) philosophically-informed scientists. The result
is the most comprehensive review ever provided of the philosophy of science.
Here are the volumes in the Handbook:
Philosophy of Science: Focal Issues, edited by Theo Kuipers.
Philosophy of Physics, edited by Jeremy Butterfield and John Earman.
PhilosophyofBiology,editedbyMohanMatthenandChristopherStephens.
Philosophy of Mathematics, edited by Andrew Irvine.
Philosophy of Logic, edited by Dale Jacquette.
PhilosophyofChemistryandPharmacology,editedbyAndreaWoody,Robin
Hendry and Paul Needham.
vi DovGabbay,PaulThagard,andJohnWoods
PhilosophyofStatistics,editedbyPrasantaS.BandyopadhyayandMalcolm
Forster.
Philosophy of Information, edited by Pieter Adriaans and Johan van
Benthem.
Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences, edited by Anthonie
Meijers.
Philosophy of Complex Systems, edited by Cliff Hooker.
Philosophy of Ecology, edited by Bryson Brown, Kent Peacock and Kevin
de Laplante.
Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science, edited by Paul Thagard.
Philosophy of Economics, edited by Uskali Mäki.
Philosophy of Linguistics, edited by Ruth Kempson, Tim Fernando and
Nicholas Asher.
Philosophy of Anthropology and Sociology, edited by Stephen Turner and
Mark Risjord.
Philosophy of Medicine, edited by Fred Gifford.
Details about the contents and publishing schedule of the volumes can be found
at http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookseriesdescription.cws home/BS HPHS/
description
Asgeneraleditors,weareextremelygratefultothevolumeeditorsforarranging
such a distinguished array of contributors and for managing their contributions.
Production of these volumes has been a huge enterprise, and our warmest thanks
go to Jane Spurr and Carol Woods for putting them together. Thanks also to
Andy Deelen and Arjen Sevenster at Elsevier for their support and direction.
CONTRIBUTORS
Jennifer K. Alexander
University of Minnesota, USA.
[email protected]
Gerhard Banse
Institut fu¨r Technikfolgenabscha¨tzung und Systemanalyse, Germany.
[email protected]
Johannes M. Bauer
Michigan State University, USA.
[email protected]
Henk van den Belt
Wageningen University, The Netherlands
[email protected]
Mieke Boon
University of Twente, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Stefano Borgo
University of Trento, Italy.
[email protected]
Philip Brey
University of Twente, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Adam Briggle
University of Twente, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Louis Bucciarelli
Massachussets Institute of Technology, USA.
[email protected]
Richard Buchanan
Case Western Reserve University, USA.
[email protected]
David F. Channell
University of Texas at Dallas, USA.
[email protected]
viii Contributors
Kees Dorst
EindhovenUniversityofTechnology, TheNetherlands, andUniversityofTechnol-
ogy, Sydney, Australia.
[email protected];[email protected]
Maarten Franssen
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Pawel Garbacz
The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland
[email protected]
Armin Grunwald
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany.
[email protected]
Sven Ove Hansson
Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
[email protected]
Paulien M. Herder
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Wilfrid Hodges
Queen Mary University of London, UK
[email protected]
Wybo Houkes
Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Jesse Hughes
Arlington, USA.
[email protected]
Christian Illies
University of Bamberg, Germany.
[email protected]
Tarja Knuuttila
University of Helsinki, Finland.
[email protected]
Peter Kroes
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Bruce MacLennan
University of Tennessee, USA.
[email protected]
Anthonie Meijers
Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Contributors ix
Carl Mitcham
Colorado School of Mines, USA.
[email protected]
Roland Mu¨ller
Switzerland.
[email protected]
Nancy J. Nersessian
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
[email protected]
Paul Nightingale
SPRU, University of Sussex, UK.
[email protected]
Alfred Nordmann
TU Darmstadt, Germany
[email protected]
Kees van Overveld
Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Christopher Patton
Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.
[email protected]
Joseph C. Pitt
Virginia Tech, USA.
[email protected]
Beth Preston
University of Georgia, USA.
[email protected]
Michael S. Pritchard
Western Michigan University, USA.
[email protected]
Hans Radder
VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
[email protected]
Nicholas Ray
Cambridge University, UK.
[email protected]
Eric Schatzberg
University of Wisconsin, USA.
[email protected]
Marcel Scheele
The Netherlands.
[email protected]