2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Although epistemology is not typically addressed in discussions of ethics at an undergraduate engineering level, assumptions about the nature of knowledge play an important role in ethics. This role may be highlighted in the epistemic values operating in ethics case studies, or in analysis of the relation between technology and society. For example, some critics of the place of technology in society argue that western society’s misconceptions of truth and knowledge undermine the possibility of effectively critiquing technology’s role in society. Examining implicit epistemologies is thus a valuable step towards developing a deeper ethical engagement. However, philosophical treatment of epistemology can be daunting and appear irrelevant for engineering students. This paper reports on an epistemology discussion unit in a 2-credit engineering ethics course required for all undergraduate engineering students at Dunwoody College of Technology. As part of a sequence of units on technology and society, the goal is to introduce undergraduate engineering students to epistemological assumptions and discuss the impact of these assumptions. Given the context of an engineering ethics course, no philosophy background is assumed for students, and activities avoid philosophical terms where possible. The discussion-based class activities are designed to explore the emphasis on objective knowledge in common conceptions of "scientific knowledge," and the limitations of this popular conception of knowledge. Michael Polanyi’s description of tacit knowledge is used to examine the importance of non-explicit and non-objective knowledge in the sciences and in everyday activities. Class activities also explore the role of focal and subsidiary awareness, as well as the role of authority in learning. Polanyi gives a nuanced account of the non-explicit aspects of knowing that provide a correction to naïve realism, while still holding to a realist ontology. Student feedback has affirmed student engagement with the topic and ability to grasp the concepts. Ongoing work aims at improving long-term retention by increasing the connections between this unit and other course activities.