Abstract

An analysis and solution to the two-cultures problem in undergraduate engineering education is presented. The issue is stated in terms of a dichotomy between the humanities and social science component and the technical component of the engineering curriculum that renders the former ineffective and inhibits students from developing their full potential. ;A review of the literature and an overview of the philosophical framework are presented. The literature is categorized in terms of the issue in general, official reports, guidelines and statements regarding the issue, professional engineering education literature, the writings of Samuel Florman, and philosophical literature pertaining to the framework of the study. The philosophical framework employed derives from the Amsterdam school of Dutch neo-Calvinism. Central figures in that tradition are Abraham Kuyper, Herman Dooyeweerd, and Egbert Schuurman. ;The method of analysis demonstrates how epistemological dualism, at the foundation of the Western intellectual tradition and popular Western thinking, gives rise to and sustains the two-cultures problem, clarifies the species of the problem in undergraduate engineering education, and brings the epistemological pluralism of the neo-Calvinist school of philosophy to bear on a solution to the problem. ;Principles for reform of undergraduate engineering education are proposed and examples of specific curricular reform are given. Three areas that manifest the integration of the humanities and social sciences with the technical components of the curriculum are explored in some detail. They are the nurturing context that the humanities provide for the engineering student, the role of aesthetics in engineering design, and the moral properties of technological artifacts. ;The study concludes that undergraduate engineering faculty play the most critical role in an attempt to overcome the two-cultures problem. Pedagogical principles and examples relevant to the issue and presented are discussed. Eleven courses that demonstrate integration of the humanities and social sciences with technical material are described in some detail. Four of the courses are aimed at the general student and the remaining seven are part of a typical undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum