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Epistemology and Engineered Systems (Frey, MIT)

Epistemology and Engineered Systems (Frey, MIT). Epistemology - the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of knowledge, justification, evidence and related notions. Knowledge in Engineering different than for Science?.

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Epistemology and Engineered Systems (Frey, MIT)

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  1. Epistemology and Engineered Systems (Frey, MIT) • Epistemology - the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of knowledge, justification, evidence and related notions.

  2. Knowledge in Engineering different than for Science? • Science proposes theory that explain phenomena, but observations may disprove • better theories by evolution (or revolution) • Engineering certainly uses science at times • But engineering needs normative logics • can’t properly analyze specs without it? • does Simon really say this?

  3. Popper’s falsifiability criterion? • Any respectable theory of science is falsifiable • “God is love” is not falsifiable • “Turner was born in Philadelphia” is falsifiable • this is not perjorative (ethics, morality, faith) • Does Simon propose we propose falsifiable theories about “designs” ? • Btw, are software requirements a theory about the released product?

  4. Normative concepts? • Normative statements fail to be falsifiable • but we might transform them into examples:

  5. Can Math be the Epistemological basis of a Science of Design? • NSF states a preference for math rigor in its support of a science of design • Math concerned with self-consistent sets of propositions based on axioms (and its cool!) • Design is a human activity • cognitive limits, psych, group dynamics, social reality

  6. Evaluation of Design Theories based on Practice? • Evaluation of design theories by observation of its effects on the practice of design and evaluation of outcomes? • medicine: germ theory • that proved a benefit by evaluation of practice • statistics: theory of optimal design of experiments • resulted in less improvement of systems than would have been achieved with response surface methods (Box) • an existence proof that math devoid of human factors cannot represent design problems well? • This must be a probabilisitic exercise • caution regarding just a few “successes” or “failures”

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