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Gorman, Michael E. Ed, et. al. Scientific and technological thinking. Mahwah, NJ: L Erlbaum, 2005. ISBN: 0805845291. |
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This book takes the reader out onto the cutting edge of research in scientific and technological thinking. The editors advocate a multiple-method approach; chapters include detailed case studies of contemporary and historical practices, experiments, computational simulations, and innovative theoretical analyses. The editors attempt a provocative synthesis of this work at the end. |
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Gorman, Michael E., Mehalik, Matthew M., Werhane, Patricia H. Ethical and environmental challenges to engineering. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. ISBN: 013011328X. |
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The first casebook designed specifically for engineering and environmental ethics, this text features full-length, multi-faceted, real-life cases of design and managerial dilemmas in a variety of settings—together with background readings that illustrate how one can integrate ethical and environmental challenges into engineering decisions, especially ones early in the design process. It presents the dilemmas as descriptively as possible—without revealing what the authors think are “proper” or “good” solutions—and encourages students to think deeply about real-life situations and to engage in “moral imagination.” |
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Gorman, Michael E. Transforming nature: ethics, invention and discovery. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic, 1998. ISBN: 0792381203. |
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This book treats discovery and invention as processes of knowledge transformation. This process of transformation also covers the way in which scientists persuade and inventors create markets. New discoveries and technologies are not simply the result of organizational agendas and market forces; they are created by human beings who transform both nature and society. One of the goals of this book is to take technological and scientific thinking out of the realm of mystery and give a wider audience the tools to begin to comprehend it. An additional goal is to show how ethics can be used to make certain inventions and discoveries transform the world in a beneficial way. New technologies must be environmentally sustainable and socially just. |
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Gorman, Michael E. Simulating Science: heuristics, mental models, and technoscientific thinking. Bloomburg, IN: Indiana University Press, 1992. ISBN: 0253326087. |
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(No longer in print.)
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This study of cognitive processes and scientific research begins with an autobiographical account of a research program that was designed to simulate scientific thinking. It explores such questions as: How do mental models, representations, expectations, and presumptions affect the creation of scientific knowledge? What is the effect of confirmation or disconfirmation on the process of experimentation and the direction of research? How does a scientist decide whether a model or theory is correct? The first-person narrative allows readers to follow the research step by step and to work through the issues as the author grapples with them. The book also discusses important historical examples in which these issues have loomed large, among them the "great Devonian controversy," the etheric force controversy, and Kepler's theory of planetary motion. One fascinating chapter compares the cognitive styles of Bell and Edison and develops a cognitive framework that can be used to compare the creative processes of scientists and inventors. |