Abstract
Founded by Sir Ove Arup in 1946, Arup is one of the largest global engineering consultancies offering design services for the built environment. Throughout his career Sir Ove continually reflected on his practice and its role in producing more or less socially robust urban environments. Analysis of documents from his personal and professional archive provides a case study of a practice-based engineer-philosopher. Sir Ove’s writings and reflections develop the central elements of his ‘Total Design’ philosophy: a philosophy that can be characterized as an engineering philosophy of technology as defined by Carl Mitcham (1994), based on an instrumentalist understanding of the nature of technology (Feenberg 2002). Through this case study we see how an influential engineer addressed issues of engineering method, the purpose of engineering, and its role in society, and also developed a framework for the translation of values into practice in engineering.
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Acknowledgement
This research was undertaken as part of Andrew Chilvers’ Engineering Doctorate studies, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Arup.
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© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Chilvers, A., Bell, S. (2013). Ove Arup: Theoretical and Moral Positions in Practice and the Origins of an Engineering Firm. In: Michelfelder, D., McCarthy, N., Goldberg, D. (eds) Philosophy and Engineering: Reflections on Practice, Principles and Process. Philosophy of Engineering and Technology, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7762-0_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7762-0_5
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