From Function to Structure in Engineering Design

[摘要] Peter Kroes et al (The Empirical Turn in the Philosophy of Technology, P. Kroes & A. Meijers, (eds.) JAI, 20009 )frame the challenge of engineering design as bridging the divide between function and structure, as moving from a statement of functional requirements to the definition of (physical) structure - the latter, in large part, taking the form of design drawings, parts-lists, user manuals, and the like. I flesh out this picture, arguing that the notion of ;;structure” is best understood as of two sorts: There is ;;material structure” as the definition of the concrete material object of design as recognized above, but there is structure again in a formal sense - as abstract, engineering models and representations of the ;;parts” of the design (object- worlds here). It is this latter ;;formal structure” of the parts and their place in the whole that participants in design work to define, given the stated functional requirements of the whole.