Foundational Issues of Engineering Design

Publisher Summary Making designs or plans for new technical artefacts points to a feature of human agency that extends far beyond the domain of material production. One makes all kinds of plans in the sense of considered series of actions, which may or may not involve the use or making of technical artefacts. Modern engineering design is a science-based activity but that does not make it a branch of applied science. The solving of design problems is taken to be something very different from the solving of scientific problems. Designing is considered as the salient feature of technology that distinguishes it from science. The idea is the function or functional requirements that the thing to be designed (i.e. the system, component or process) is expected to satisfy. These functional requirements are related, in turn, to certain human ends (or needs). If the designed artefact meets all the specifications, it is deemed suitable to realize the desired function. Whether that indeed turns out to be the case depends very much on whether the list of specifications adequately meets the functional requirements. If it does and if the reasoning from end to function has also been performed adequately, then the designed artefact may be expected to be a reliable means to the specified end.