WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES AND ENGINEERING
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Most of the work done in philosophy of engineering has focused on applying philosophical techniques to engineering knowledge and know-how, processes, and practices, decontextualized from the historico-philosophical traditions present in the cultures in which engineering has developed and its effects felt. This is unfortunate for two reasons. One, the resources from philosophical traditions can enrich philosophical reflections on engineering. Two, the philosophical traditions are invigorated through the dialogue between their ideas, practices, and concepts and those from engineering practice, its social organizations, and the sociotechnical systems that it produces and that surround us in what has been called the Anthropocene. Here, I develop some of the connections between engineering and Aristotelian philosophy and virtue ethics, Kantian philosophy and deontology, and consequentialism and pragmatism.