Chapter 3: Engineering empiricism

In the previous chapter, it was noted that, although engineering may appear to be a rational pursuit, founded on the a priori development of models of behaviour and design, the practice of engineering incorporates significant elements of empiricism. Similarly, although the outlook of most engineers is realist – that is, the principles that an engineer works with are thought to be related to enduring and identifiable laws of nature – much of the practice of engineering is ad hoc, contingent and anti-realist. These ideas will be elaborated further in this chapter, with a particular emphasis on how the activities of an engineer fit into the epistemological concepts that we have identified. Following this description of the philosophical ideas underlying the practice of engineering, we will identify and discuss the areas in which empiricism is used in structural engineering, either on its own or as a supplement to rational analysis.