The question of what engineering ‘is’ and what constitutes an engineer eludes a simple answer. A review of engineering syllabi, points to an epistemology based on the application of physics and mathematics to real world problems. Engineers are seen as providing a link between scientific research and the creation of new products. If engineering is understood to be purely the application of scientific principles, the epistemology of engineering would be seen as positivistic and ‘value-free’. From this standpoint, any discussion of engineering failure could be seen as a failure of the engineer to apply robust scientific principles. Moreover, taking a view that engineering is based on a solid universal set of physical laws may leave the engineer with a strong sense of confidence in his methods and approach, a mechanistic view of cause and effect which underplays the influence of weak interactions. This view holds that risk can be quantified by analyzing a system under the assumption that the safety of a system can be assessed by quantifying the reliability of each component.