Thinking Through Climate Change by Adam Briggle

Author:Adam Briggle
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030535872
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Hume’s views would influence the young Thomas Tredgold to offer the above definition of engineering at the start of this chapter, which was adopted by King George IV in the Royal Charter given to the Institution of Civil Engineers (Mitcham 2019). In this way, ‘convenience’ was given what no religion could have in a modern society: the official seal of approval as the national way of life. The engineers were chartered to direct the energies of nature (“the great Sources of Power”) in the making of a more convenient world. They would put the pieces together to suit our desires.

The Latin convenientia means “meeting together, agreement, accord, harmony, conformity, suitableness, [or] fitness.” In the pre-modern paradigm, something could be described as convenient if it was in accord with nature, or a morally appropriate fit. Indeed, energeia was all about this kind of fittingness or proportionality. The Aristotelean virtues are about striking the right balance, finding the mean. But the mechanical worldview lent a radically new meaning to convenience as ease or the absence of trouble. Thomas Tierney (1993) argues that the different meaning has to do with how ‘suitable’ (fit or proper) has shifted and narrowed:Convenience is no longer a matter of the suitability of something to the facts, nature, or a moral code; suitability in the modern meaning of convenience refers back to the person, the self. Something is a convenience or convenient in the modern sense of these words if it is suitable for personal comfort or ease.

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