Methods as a Form of Engineering Knowledge

Methods comprise a significant part of the knowledge engineers are taught and that they use in professional practice. However, methods have been largely neglected in discussions of the nature of engineering knowledge.

In their paper Methods as a Form of Engineering Knowledge, Prof Claudia Eckert and an interdisciplinary international group of philosophers, engineers, and computer scientists argue that methods should be seen as a distinct type of engineering knowledge.

Before characterisation of method knowledge,  they discuss contemporary views of what engineering methods are and what they contain, showing how methods (fail to) fit Walter G. Vincenti’s highly influential typology of engineering knowledge, put forward in his book What Engineers Know and How They Know It.

The paper can be read on the Design Science journal website: https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2025.9

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