The epistemic implications of engineering rhetoric.
The texts (and talk) of engineers take different forms. In this essay, I present and critique several texts written for different purposes and audiences but all intended to convey to the reader the technical details of whatever they are about—whether a textbook passage describing the fundamental beh...
| Publicado en: | Synthese Vol. 168; no. 3; pp. 333 - 357 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Jun2009
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=38798782&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 38798782 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2009 vid: 168 iid: 3 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 38798782 10.1007/s11229-008-9454-z ppf: 333 ppct: 24 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 245KB tig: atl: The epistemic implications of engineering rhetoric. aug: au: Bucciarelli, Louis affil: Professor of Engineering & Technology Studies, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA USA su: Ergonomics research Rhetoric research Engineering design Engineering mathematics Engineering sug: subj: Ergonomics research Rhetoric research Engineering design Engineering mathematics Engineering keyword: Engineering analysis Engineering narrative Engineering rhetoric Ergonomics ab: The texts (and talk) of engineers take different forms. In this essay, I present and critique several texts written for different purposes and audiences but all intended to convey to the reader the technical details of whatever they are about—whether a textbook passage describing the fundamental behavior of an electrical component, a journal article about a mathematical technique intended for use in design optimization, a memo to co-workers within a firm about a heat transfer analysis of a remotely sited building, or a general introduction to the field of? ergonomics? My aim is to explore how the ways in which engineers describe and document their problems and projects frame what they accept, display and profess as useful knowledge. In this I am particularly interested in how engineers envision the ‘users’ of, or participants in, their productions. Like science, engineering texts are written as if they were timeless and untainted by socio-cultural features. However, a technical treatise is not devoid of metaphor or creative rendering of events; there is always a narrative within which worldly data and instrumental logic is embedded—but it is a story in which the passive voice prevails, history is irrelevant, and the human actor or agent is painted in quantitative parameters fitting the occasion. Whether this rhetoric can be sustained in the face of challenges to traditional ways of doing engineering is an open question. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2009. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2009 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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