DILLEMMAS OF ERGOLOGICAL AND ENGINEERING SCIENCES IN FORESTRY

Abstract

In the following article the essential features of ergological sciences are described, in particular – of ergonomics, in terms of engineering. The author argues that the most rational and useful approach to solving present and future ergonomic problems in the field of a knowledge-based economy is a system approach – both in terms of basic human – technical object systems as well as anthropotechnical megasystems, which are the object of interest in so-called macroergonomics. Systems such as a human – technical object, in which the human is both the creator and the user, should have a sufficiently high efficiency and reliability of action, and lack a destructive impact on both the social and natural environment. The methodological basis for efficient operation of these systems can be found in praxeology, especially in its philosophical strand, associated with the work of Tadeusz Kotarbiński. In turn, the impact on the social environment is the object of interest in sociology and social psychology, while the impact of anthropotechnical systems on the environment is explained in ecology and its engineering strand – sozology.

The relationships that occur between the two fundamentally different parts of the system – the human and technical object, as well as the environmental factors which surround the system, are described and explained by ergonomics, and the development of these relationships – by so-called ergonomic engineering. This is a causative trend of interdisciplinary ergonomic activities, encompassing theoretical and practical work whose hallmark are design processes aimed at producing anthropotechnical systems with the desired level of ergonomic and ecological quality. The engineering approach to ergonomics comes down to the belief that the way to further development of ergonomic knowledge should be found in its pragmatism – this is, after all, an accepted criterion of the truth of knowledge. In relation to the first assumption, the author presents reflections on the engineering approach to issues related to the interaction of human and technical objects characteristic of the modern economy, whose driving force is knowledge. The concepts of ergonomic engineering, ergonomic quality of technical objects as products, as well as the quality of environmental conditions created by a knowledge-based economy are clarified. The author also discusses the methodological issues related to diagnosis and ergonomic design and the prospect of a wider study, called macroergonomics. Ergonomics in a knowledge-based economy should provide answers to the cardinal questions that the technology creators should ask themselves:

1) scientific knowledge in the field of ergonomics true and useful?

2) will a society whose future will be based on knowledge evolve for the better, or will it degenerate?

3) Is society currently undergoing a crisis? If so – what is the basis for this crisis?

4)Is knowledge in the fields of technology, psychology, medicine, and the natural environment sufficient  enough to solve the problems of the modern world, or is it unreliable?

In the article, the author does not give exhaustive answers to the above questions, but hopes that putting them forth will inspire the representatives of various scientific disciplines to reflection. This requires the application of the principle of interdisciplinary discussion and is characteristic especially for ergonomics, like the systemic approach to its object of interest.

The article ends with reflections on the consequences to society posed by the development of a knowledge-based technology.