ABSTRACT
The key to engineering practice is understanding the nature of technical knowledge. Specialised knowledge, much of it technical, is the main attribute that distinguishes engineers from other people, and it also distinguishes the engineering disciplines from each other. Philosophers have debated the concept of knowledge for thousands of years. Some focus on knowledge as a product of rational thought in the form of written statements of truth that are independent of any particular individual. Explicit knowledge is relatively easy to distribute. It can be written down in a language that appropriately educated people will understand, with fair chance that their interpretation, based on their own prior knowledge, will align fairly closely with the intentions of the author. Explicit knowledge can be transmitted using symbols, such as words. In constructing new knowledge in our minds, the learning process, engineers interpret perceptions of information in the light of our prior knowledge. Philosophers, education psychologists, and learning scientists have studied the process extensively.
