The engineering project : its nature, ethics, and promise / Gene Moriarty.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moriarty, Gene.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Engineering.

Physical Description:

viii, 216 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

University Park, Pa. : The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2008]

Summary:

We all live our daily lives surrounded by the products of technology that make what we do simpler, faster, and more efficient. These are benefits we often just take for granted. But at the same time, as these products disburden us of unwanted tasks that consumed much time and effort in earlier eras, many of them also leave us more disengaged from our natural and even human surroundings. It is the task of what Gene Moriarty calls focal engineering to create products that will achieve a balance between disburdenment and engagement: How much disburdenment will be appropriate while still permitting an engagement that enriches ones life, elevates the spirit, and calls forth a good life in a convivial society? One of his examples of a focally engineered structure is the Golden Gate Bridge, which draws people to it, enlivens and elevates the human spirit, and resonates with the world of its congenial setting. Humans, bridge, and world are in tune.

Contents:

Part I The Modern Engineering Enterprise

1 Process 13

2 Process Ethics 43

3 Colonization 75

Part II The Premodern Engineering Endeavor

4 Person 89

5 Virtue Ethics 113

6 Contextualization 141

Part III The Focal Engineering Venture

7 Product 163

8 Material Ethics 179

9 Balance 191.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780271032542

0271032545

OCLC:

162507344