Mathematical philosophy, a study of fate and freedom; lectures for educated laymen, by Cassius J. Keyser.

454 MATHEMATICAL PHILOSOPHY
worthy; but of engineering itself the ideal is great and
mighty. It is of that ideal that I intend to speak.
What is engineering? It is evident that the term
stands, or ought to stand, for a great conception. What
is that conception? Many attempts have been made to
define it. Most of them throw more light upon the character and outlook of those who have made them than
upon the nature of engineering itself.
To say that an engineer is one who "knows what to
do, when to do it and how to do it" may be true,-the
formula is very neat,-but it can hardly be said to be
quite definitive, seeing that it applies equally well to the
wisdom of a wise philanthropist and to the cunning of
a cunning thief.
To define engineering in terms of aim is no doubt
feasible; but to say that the aim is "maximum production with minimum outlay of time, effort and resources"
sounds like the "efficiency" cry of brute industrialism,
appears to regard quantity as the summum bonum, seems
to ignore the spiritual autonomy of men and women, and
to idealize a "system" in which "laborers" are reduced
to the level of machines.
To say that the aim of engineering is the "mastering
of natural forces and materials for the benefit of mankind" is far better in one respect because it is humaneit represents engineering, I mean, as having for its aim
"the benefit of mankind." But what do its sponsors mean
by "natural forces"? Do they intend the term to cover
the personalities of individual men and women, their
perfectly natural civilizing impulses and aspirations? Do
they include among "natural forces" the spiritual energies
of our human kind-those time-binding powers in virtue
of which human beings are human? If they do not, why