Nothing to report: moral and pedagogical reflections from a voyage into engineering curricula for Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract This essay chronicles the intellectual voyage of an ordinary language philosopher within a European Union-funded project (A-STEP 2030) using quantitative social science methods to define sustainability competencies for engineering education. Thinking through the standard ‘lit review’ and expert-validation procedures, it explores the philosophical and pedagogical perplexities emergent from arrogating a right to claim to know how to educate coming generations in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Drawing on thinkers like Cavell, Wittgenstein, Emerson, and Thoreau, it raises sceptical questions regarding the ways in which our intellectual tools may limit our capacity to shape a future different from our present, about the arrogance of expertise, and even about the possible limits of ordinary language as it is ordinarily practised to address the deep problems raised by the current polycrisis. Drawing inspiration from considerations on the ordinary language of astronauts, the text concludes that perhaps one way forward for ordinary language thought is to re-imagine the ways in which our uses of words rely not only on the self but also on our commonplace forms of life on planet Earth.