Discussion on Papers 9 and 10

Mr. J.V. BARTLETT: (Mott Hay & Anderson): Fish farms, advanced irrigation systems, the applications of electronics to motorways and many other matters outside the core subjects of civil engineering are in fact increasingly in the main

stream of civil engineering and the civil engineer has to be equipped to take full responsibil

ity. This could be achieved partly by recruiting

people of the highest ability, but is there also

a case for reducing the time spent on core soibj ects?

Mr. J.H. ARMSTRONG (Building Design Partnership): I refer to a point raised in Paper 7 relevant to the topics discussed in Papers 9 and 10, on the development of an enquiring and critical mode of thought. I have discovered over a period of years after graduating, that it is possible to learn, and to practise, thought processes. I confess to having discovered these more from the reading of some philosophers - Plato, Descartes, Pascal and others - than from engineering practice.