Jon S, list,
In your Part 4 "Beyond Engineering", you wrote,
pronounced “rep-re-sen-TAY-men”
Happy to see the correct stress placement (as Peirce had it in the
Century Dictionary, and John Deely pushed for it too), but it'd be even
better if the "s" were a "z".
I'd guess that you'd count such "ruling arts" (their old label) as
design, architecture, community planning, — arts of governing, being
governed, and self-governing, — as parts of engineering (and other
productive sciences/arts such as medicine) in some broad sense.
A decade or more ago, I used to argue here at peirce-l that there's
difference between (A) will, decision-making, character, ethics, etc.,
and (B) ability, carrying-out, competence, (and what I dubbed
"cheiromenics"), etc.; for example, we don't regard flaws of character
per se as flaws of competence per se, or vice versa (although for
example a character flaw such as recklessness can lead to needlessly
incompetent practice). Well, I got tired of arguing about it, obviously.
Anyway, I'd still regard design etc. as knowledge, or at least
conception, of forces, strengths, impetuses, whereby to decide things
or, at any rate, for things to get decided, as opposed to engineering
etc. as know-how, knowledge of means. Apparently, at one time design was
seen by many as simply the application of maths of optimization.
Engineering obviously involves the application of probability maths and
statistics, although in its design aspects it does get involved with
optimization.
What I'm saying is that design, architecture, community planning,
constitution-writing, education intending the building of character,
etc., don't seem to be simply aimed, as in the old formula, at "useful +
beautiful", i.e., engineering with aesthetic art along for the ride in
an added sidecar.
The distinction seems parallel to that between two kinds of
decision-making itself (A) political (and martial) affairs
(decision-making in regard to decision-making, deciding who or what gets
to decide) and (B) economic, business, financial affairs
(decision-making as to means, resources, etc.).
I seem to remember that I broached this subject with you once before,
but I forget. I doubt that I'll convince any Peirceans that the
will-ability distinction is quite basic (they tend to be satisfied with
Peirce's trichotomy of will, feeling, and general conception), still I'd
draw your attention to the above distinction as worth attention at some
level, if not the most basic level, in your work and meditation on the
logic of ingenuity.
Best, Ben
On 3/1/2017 10:59 AM, Jon Alan Schmidt wrote:
List:
Part 4, subtitled "Beyond Engineering," is now online at
http://www.structuremag.org/?p=11107. It discusses how /anyone /can
use the logic of ingenuity to imagine possibilities, assess
alternatives, and choose one of them to actualize. I have argued for
years that just as science is perceived as an especially systematic
way of /knowing/, likewise engineering could be conceived as an
especially systematic way of /willing/; and if this is really the
case, then the distinctive reasoning process of engineers /should/ be
paradigmatic for other kinds of decision-making, including ethical
deliberation.
Regards,
Jon
On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 7:50 AM, Jon Alan Schmidt
<jonalanschm...@gmail.com <mailto:jonalanschm...@gmail.com>> wrote:
List:
Part 3, subtitled "Engineering Reasoning," is now online at
http://www.structuremag.org/?p=10592
<http://www.structuremag.org/?p=10592>. It discusses how engineers
use the logic of ingenuity to simulate contingent events with
necessary reasoning. This is my attempt to explain Peirce's whole
notion of diagrammatic reasoning, using a variety of quotes from
his writings.
Regards,
Jon
On Sun, Oct 16, 2016 at 8:45 PM, Jon Alan Schmidt
<jonalanschm...@gmail.com <mailto:jonalanschm...@gmail.com>> wrote:
List:
I meant to post this back around the first of the month, and
then kept forgetting to do so. Part 2, subtitled "Engineering
Analysis," is now online at
http://www.structuremag.org/?p=10490
<http://www.structuremag.org/?p=10490>. It discusses how
engineers use the logic of ingenuity to solve real problems by
analyzing fictitious ones. It mostly consists of quotes from
and comments on CP 3.559, which is part of Peirce's 1898
article in /Educational Review/, "The Logic of Mathematics in
Relation to Education"
(http://www.pragmaticism.net/works/csp_ms/P00653.pdf
<http://www.pragmaticism.net/works/csp_ms/P00653.pdf>). It is
the passage that opened up to me this whole understanding of
engineering thinking, when I first encountered it in the
volume edited by Matthew E. Moore, /Philosophy of Mathematics:
Selected Writings/.
Regards,
Jon
On Sat, Sep 3, 2016 at 10:32 AM, Jon Alan Schmidt
<jonalanschm...@gmail.com <mailto:jonalanschm...@gmail.com>>
wrote:
List:
In an effort to apply Peirce's thought to my profession of
engineering, as well as introduce it to my fellow
practitioners, I have written a four-part series of
articles under this heading for /STRUCTURE/ magazine.
Part 1, subtitled "Engineering Design," appears in the
September issue and is also posted online.
http://www.STRUCTUREmag.org/?p=10373
<http://www.STRUCTUREmag.org/?p=10373>
In summary, I am defining "the logic of ingenuity" as the
process of (abductively) creating a diagrammatic
representation of a problem and its proposed solution, and
then (deductively) working out the necessary consequences,
such that this serves as an adequate substitute for
(inductively) evaluating the actual situation. This first
installment discusses how engineers use it to design
particular artifacts for specific purposes, and connects
it with many of my previous writings for the same publication.
Any and all feedback is welcome!
Thanks,
Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA
Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman
www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt
<http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt> -
twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt <http://twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt>
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