Critical thinking and judgment on engineer's work : its integration in engineering education

Abstract

Abstract: In the present work we develop some core ideas to strengthen the inclusion of humanistic knowledge in scientific and technical education sustained in the mainstream definition of engineering provided by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). In order to achieve such a goal we developed a novel formal definition of the term ‘judgment’ to enlighten the conceptual links between technical rationality and critical thinking in the context of the engineering profession. The analysis intends to overcome some obstacles still present when integrating humanities in engineering training rather than including them as a mere afterthought.