Scientists and engineers live lives governed by the reality principle: Get the variables wrong, the experiment will fail, even if this seems insensitive; do the math wrong, the equation will tell you, even if that hurts your feelings. Reality does not similarly regulate the production of Marxist interpretations of “Middlemarch” or turgid monographs on the false consciousness of Parisian street sweepers in 1714. Literature professors “deconstructing” Herman Melville cause nothing worse than excruciating boredom in their students. If engineers ignore reality, reality deconstructs their bridges.
YES!! Engineering is the reality profession — no fantasists or fabulists allowed.
Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing … look around. You will not see one thing, one activity, that isn’t somehow influenced by the work of scientists and, especially, engineers. And yet, in all likelihood, you never think about that — which is a source of pride to most engineers; myself, certainly.
That’s because the ‘materialist epistemology’ that Holy Men and nitwit seminary students sneer at … is trustworthy; it works; it keeps people safe. When an engineer sits down to analyze a set of facts, he or she relies upon a tested, proved, established pedigree of actual knowledge. That’s why you have to worry about what some fool influenced by some idiot Holy Man might do next, but you never give a thought to the engineers who give you so many comforts.