Three main features of engineering thought have formed over the centuries: artistic, practical (or technical), and scientific (or engineering). The first engineers appeared in the Renaissance. They came from the circle of scientists who turned to technology or from self taught artisans interested in science. The first engineers were at the same time artists and architects; consultant engineers specializing in fortification, artillery, and civil structures; alchemists and physicians; mathematicians; natural scientists; and inventors. But traditional artisan skills were no longer enough. That is why the first engineers and inventors turned to mathematics and mechanics, where they got knowledge and borrowed calculation methods. Technology comes to a point from which its further advance is impossible without its saturation with science. Technology requires the application of science but a new form of science.

Galileo Galilei was one of those who created this new science oriented to technical needs. He established the relation between scientific knowledge and the objects of practice. Galileo chose an approach unusual for scholastic science: technology began to lean on mathematical knowledge and models. At the same time he criticized the craftsmen's approach to technical activity that overlooked scientific knowledge and the laws in building machinery: engineers would apply their engines to works of their own nature impossible. The main reason for those errors was that practical engineers who developed their inventions on false foundations deceived nature, failing to see its basic laws. The orientation towards both engineering practice and mathematical knowledge (obtained strictly analytically) largely determined the line of development of Galileo's ideas. He united the theoretical and the experimental proof, thus laying the groundwork not only for a new experimental science but also for modern engineering. Galileo created more than a model of experimental activity; he demonstrated how to develop scientific knowledge so that it could be used for technical purposes. This approach became possible because Galileo's new science had its roots in technical practice and was oriented to it. In his new science, Galileo manipulated natural objects like the present-day engineer. However, Galileo's new style of scientific-engineering and engineering-scientific thought and action manifested itself mainly in the sphere of thought rather than in practical activity. Galileo's works paved the way for the formation of engineering thinking and activity in practice as well as theory.

This article is prepared for the project ‘From Galileo’s technoscience to the nanotechnoscience (philosopical and methodological analysis)’, number 13-03-00190 of the Russian Foundation for Humanities.