The design and evaluation of technologies
some conceptual issues
pp. 173-195
in: Carl Mitcham (ed), Philosophy of technology in Spanish speaking countries, Berlin, Springer, 1993Abstract
Technical change is brought about by the modification or combination of previously available techniques or by new inventions and technical discoveries. These can result from non-systematic trial and error or from systematic programs of research and technological development. In either case, there are two kinds of intellectual operations in the processes of technical discovery: design and evaluation. Both can be carried out in a rational, systematic, and scientific way, or in an empirical and intuitive (though not necessarily irrational) way.