From: ian glendinning (psybertron@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Apr 13 2005 - 00:17:18 BST
Sorry Mark, nice try, but I just don't buy that, and I don't actually
believe you would be that disingenuous.
You actually said
The outcome is ALL they care about. They wanna land that
spacecraft, complete that circuit, build that bridge. What they
don't care about is the literal truth of their assumptions. In
fact, they care so little about the "truth" of the assumptions that,
if the assumptions get in the way of orbiting the satellite, they
will DROP the assumptions. This is pragmatism in action.
It's your emphasis on "ALL"
I don't stop being a thougtful human when I'm being an engineer, I
doubt you do either, and I KNOW other individual engineers don't
either.
You're caricaturing some sterotypical tyrannical robber-baron, not a
typical engineer, or any other kind of pragmatist that I know of.
I didn't want to debate this - that's why you found my original tone
so negative - it's just not true as stated. If you do (want to debate
it) we should start another thread.
Ian
On 4/12/05, Mark Steven Heyman <markheyman@infoproconsulting.com> wrote:
> On 12 Apr 2005 at 1:22, ian glendinning wrote:
>
> Having said nuff said, you can hopefully see that your generalisation
> was an untruth.
>
> msh says:
> If by this you mean some engineers care more about the literal truth
> of their assumptions than about the solution to their problems, you
> may be right. This does not invalidate my generalization. And my
> guess is, such people wouldn't be engineers for long.
>
> ian:
> You say you are a professional engineer (I don't intend to argue)
>
> msh:
> Thanks.
>
> ian:
> You say "All engineers care about is outcome"
>
> msh:
> No. If you read carefully, you'll see that what I said is engineers
> care more about solving problems than about the literal truth of
> their assumptions. This pertains to their work as engineers, not to
> every facet of their lives.
>
> ian:
> You post thoughtful mails to a philosophical forum, about why people
> hold beliefs and act upon them, demonstrating that you, an engineer,
> do care about the assumptions in decisions.
>
> msh:
> When I post thoughtful mails to a philosophical forum I'm not acting
> as an engineer trying to solve a practical problem.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark Steven Heyman (msh)
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