Understanding Engineering Design and Its Social, Political, and Moral Dimensions

This chapter covers two central issues in the philosophy of engineering design. The first concerns the nature, structure, and function of engineering design. Building on the existing literature, the chapter provides an account of engineering design from a bird's eye view, asking what kind of practice it is, how it relates to other human practices (including other forms of design and other forms of engineering), and how engineering design processes are typically structured. The second issue concerns the moral, social and political choices embedded in design. The chapter investigates what a good design is from the perspective of ethics and society, how new designs can affect society in positive and negative ways, and how design processes can be supportive of values and ideals of a good society.