The Chinese Context and Future Directions in Philosophy of Engineering: An Interview with Li Bocong

Professor Li Bocong’s philosophical works embody Chinese society’s intellectual reflection on its technological, economic and social modernisation. Drawing on classical Chinese philosophy, the Chinese interpretation of Marxism and dialogue with other Western philosophical traditions, he has formulated a research programme in the philosophy of engineering and stimulated the emergence of an independent national school of thought. In the past decades, generations of Chinese philosophers and social scientists have further developed his approach and understanding of engineering as a special field of human practice that is of central importance to today’s societies. In the interview conducted with Professor Li Bocong in May 2025, we discuss his personal and intellectual biography, his inspirations from traditional Chinese culture, his reflections on the concepts of science, technology and engineering in the East and West and their intellectual exchange, his understanding of human action, creativity and rationality and their manifestations in engineering; the socio-technical transformations in today’s China, the dialectic of the global and the local in socio-technical development, and the principles of philosophical life.