Dr. Mark Thomas Young

Profile

Mark is a postdoctoral researcher at the department for Values Technology and Innovation, working on the project “Critical Thinking for Engineers”. Mark specializes in the history and philosophy of science and technology, and received his PHD in philosophy from the University of Bergen in 2019. Prior to joining TU Delft, Mark completed undergraduate training in philosophy at the University of Otago and the University of Hawaii, Manoa.

Research

Mark’s research is grouped around two main areas. The first is the philosophy of technology, where he focuses on the role of skill in practices of making and using. Recent work in this area focuses on the use of automating technologies and maintenance practices. The second is the history and philosophy of science where he explores instruments, craft practices and tacit knowledge in the context of early modern England.

Critical Thinking in Engineering

“Heuristics and Human Judgment: what we can learn about Science from the study of Engineering Design” Topoi: an International Review of Philosophy 1-9 (2018)

“Artifacts as Rules: Wittgenstein and the Sociology of Technology” Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 22(3), 2018

“Nature as Spectacle: Experience and Empiricism in Early Modern Science” Centaurus 59(1-2), 2018

“Inuition and Ineffability: Tacit Knowledge and Engineering Design” in Frizsche & Oks (eds) The Future of Engineering: Philosophical Foundations, Ethical Problems and Applications (Cham: Springer, 2018)

“Enchanting Automata: Wilkins and the Wonder of Workmanship” Intellectual History Review 27(4), 2017

“Manual Labour and ‘Mean Mechanicks’: Bacon’s Mechanical History and the Deprecation of Craft Skills in Early Modern Science” Perspectives on Science 25(4), 2017

“Technology and Technique: The Role of Skill in the Practice of Scientific Observation” Perspectives on Science 24(4), 2016

“Relavance and Relationalism” Metaphysica 12(19), 2011