Full Description
M. LUCERTINI, A. MILLAN GASCA, AND F. NICOLO 1 Technology as Knowledge: The Case of Modern Engineering Systems In recent years scholars coming from the fields of history and philosophy of sci ence and technology have devoted much attention to the problem of "technology as knowledge" and to the emergence of an autonomous engineering science in the Industrial Agel. This interest echoes a growing awareness among engineers of the independence of their conceptual approach with respect to other forms of knowl edge, linked to the consolidation of autonomous academic engineering research in th the 20 century. A careful examination of the nature of technological knowledge appears particularly valuable in view of the pervasive presence of technology in contemporary life and culture, not only as a result of its impressive achievements, but through the less obvious influence of its concepts and viewpoints as well. The activity of engineers and technicians has been traditionally based on the practical ability to cope with specific situations and to attain the corresponding specific goal by means of the design and realization of an artifact or structure, on the basis of past experience handed down by tradition and applied by means of trial-and-error and rule-of-thumb procedures. But the existence of a theoreti cal background and of principles underpinning this activity can be traced back to classical antiquity.
Contents
I Mathematical Methods and Technological Thought: Historical Aspects.- 1 Mathematical Methods in Preindustrial Technology and Machines.- 2 Organization and Mathematics: A Look into the Prehistory of Industrial Engineering Ana Millön Gasca.- 3 Technological Innovation and New Mathematics: van der Pol and the Birth of Nonlinear Dynamics.- 4 Trasferring Formal and Mathematical Tools from War Management to Political, Technological, and Social Intervention (1940-1960).- II Technological Knowledge and Mathematical Models in the Analysis, Planning, and Control of Modern Engineering Systems.- 5 Technological Concepts and Mathematical Models in the Evolution of Control Engineering.- 6 Feedback: A Technique and a "Tool for Thought".- 7 Adequacy of Mathematical Models in Control Theory, Physics, and Environmental Science.- 8 The Development of Systems Science: Concepts of Knowledge as Seen from the Western and Eastern Perspective.- 9 Coping With Complexity in the Management of Organized Systems.- Index of Names.- Authors.
