The Devil is in the Details: Why Engineering is an Inexact Science

One of the main reasons cited for the choice of an engineering career is the desire to employ an exact science.Most students of engineering distinguish themselves from the practitioners of "soft" sciences, such as psychology, marketing, sociology or philosophy.After all, the so-called soft sciences have no findings which are certain, but rather competing sets of assertions that arise from one or another set of values.This paper argues that engineering in general is not entitled to the degree of certainty typically associated with it.This point is illustrated by analyzing eight topical areas of engineering design, showing the limits of certainty in each case.Further, a case is made that the recognition of this inherent uncertainty should be acknowledged and taught in engineering ethics classes.In the first instance, understanding the limits of knowledge in engineering is a useful antidote to a riskier approach which might tend to ignore unknowns.Secondly, it would seem that an objective assessment of what an engineer is entitled to claim to be certain, and what is regarded as uncertain should precede any attempt to evaluate the ethical implications of the technology under consideration.I.