Economics and Engineering: A Foreword

This article contends that knowing and doing have become artificially separated in Western intellectual culture. The emphasis on scientific knowing has led to an overconfidence in our ability to predict the future and a neglect of the need to control complex and often unforeseen, unintended consequences of our practical actions. My purpose here to explore the relationship between economics and engineering not in analogy but in actuality. The strategy is, first, to set the context for this discussion; second, to look at the nature of science and mathematics in relation to engineering; and third, to explore some of what I see as the main similarities and differences between engineering and economics.