The Emergence of the Engineering Sciences: An Historical Analysis

Abstract

Although the engineering sciences did not emerge until the 18th and 19th centuries, earlier developments prepared the way for the establishment of the engineering sciences. The dominant philosophies and social systems that influenced ancient Greece and Rome created an ideology that made it difficult for there to be anything more than very limited interactions between natural philosophy and the mechanical arts. The widespread Platonic philosophy in ancient Greece placed the highest intellectual value on an ideal world that could be grasped with the mind and not with the senses. Because of the influence of such a system it was much more important to apply natural philosophy and mathematics to an understanding of the ideal world of the forms rather than to apply that knowledge to the material world which was considered a mere shadow of the ultimate reality. Some of the limitations of Plato's philosophy were overcome by Aristotle's philosophy, which placed more value on the material world and the role of the senses, but social barriers between the two areas limited Aristotle's influence on an interaction between natural philosophy and the technical arts. Ancient Greece was a society built on slavery. As such, activities associated with manual labor or the mechanical arts were seen as vulgar and ignoble while activities associated with philosophy were seen as liberal and enlightening.