The Engineering Project: Its Nature, Ethics, and Promise (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Engineering Project: Its Nature, Ethics, and Promise Henry Petroski (bio) The Engineering Project: Its Nature, Ethics, and Promise. By Gene Moriarty. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008. Pp. viii+216. $55. This book proved to be quite different from what I expected it to be. Perhaps this was because my academic home is in a civil engineering department and Gene Moriarty's is in an electrical engineering department. To me, the term "engineering project" evokes Boston's Big Dig. It also immediately brings to mind other such large-scale endeavors as the Manhattan and Apollo projects. In fact, none of these appears explicitly in Moriarty's index, and the Challenger accident gets only a single paragraph. The Engineering Project is mainly a book on the ethics of the engineer, engineering, and the engineered thing. The word project is used to connote just about any object or result of engineering. Furthermore, Moriarty divides the history and future of the world of engineering into three parts: premodern, modern, and, ideally, the now and forever after. The premodern "engineer" is linked closely with the craft and apprentice traditions, the modern with engineering science, the rest with a heightened sensitivity to culture, context, and caring. The structure of the book, like that of its subtitle, is tripartite. It is also symmetrical. Thus, part 1, "The Modern Engineering Enterprise," has three chapters, on process, process ethics, and colonization, by which is meant essentially the influence of technology on culture. Part 2, "The Premodern [End Page 540] Engineering Endeavor," has chapters on "person," virtue ethics, and contextualization. Part 3,"The Focal Engineering Venture," discusses product,material ethics, and balance. Seldom does the table of contents of any book reveal its structure so boldly, but no explanation is given as to why the pre-modern is considered after the modern. Moriarty likes to introduce unfamiliar terms for familiar concepts. Thus, "focal engineering" is that which contributes to a balance between technology's promise of "disburdenment" from everyday chores and "an engagement that enriches life and elevates the spirit" (p. 1). It is to this end that the whole book tends, with the final chapter being largely a case for engineers maintaining balance by "acting in the service of the Good" (p. 211), which Moriarty takes to be a "focal fulcrum." According to Moriarty, "it is for the sake of the Good that the focal engineer engineers the focally engineered product" (p. 206). The principal foundations for Moriarty's arguments are taken from works of philosophy and ethics. There are relatively few references to the literature of the history of engineering or technology. Some of the examples he offers in support of his calls for ethical behavior can appear to be forced. Thus, as an example of balance in the focal engineering venture, he asks the reader to "assume in my human-oriented company we are assigned the task of coming up with a proposal for engineering a movable walkway for a new airport in a developing third world country." The company's proposal beats out that of a "nonfocal competitor" by harmonizing "with the hustle and bustle of the airport ambiance." He and his colleagues even "contemplated applying the principles of feng shui to make the movable walkway more resonant with the world of the airport." They consider how they might "make the experience memorable" for users of the walkway. Such considerations represent "focalizations" of the engineering practice (p. 199). The Engineering Project is a handsome book, with an attractive dust jacket whose illustration is repeated as the book's frontispiece. Clearly, some thought was given to the book's design. However, as with any design, things can be carried too far. One aspect of the design that distracted me throughout was the placement of a simple centered rule device beneath the running heads. It is located far enough below the heads to look like it belongs to the text and thereby seemed to signal a break in the text. To me, this attempt to distinguish the book's layout from the ordinary created an unnecessary distraction. The book appears to have been poorly copy-edited and proofread. Thus we read "the junkman...