Computing as a discipline is often characterized as a combination of three major traditions: theoretical, scientific, and engineering tradition. Although the three traditions are all considered equally necessary for modern computing, the engineering tradition is often considered to be useful but to lack intellectual depth. This article discusses the basic intellectual background of the engineer...

Suspicion of the authority of tradition is the very signature of the Age of Reason, and particularly, of the Enlightenment. In the last chapter we saw how the suspicion to which tradition was subjected led to a profound misunderstanding of its very nature. If tradition is not merely doctrines or beliefs transmitted from the past, but the very context in which they are interpreted, then the effo...