Pattern recognition between science and engineering: A red herring?

Abstract Pattern recognition has been plagued since its beginnings by the elusiveness of its very nature, permeated as it is by a scientific as well as an engineering outlook, and over the years a debate has taken place among scholars aimed at clarifying its role and function. In this paper, we would like to reopen the discussion around the nature of pattern recognition research in the light of some recent developments both in the philosophy of technology and in the philosophy of science. These suggest that we have to rethink the classical dichotomy between science and engineering as, at the conceptual level, the boundary between the two camps turns out to be more blurred than is commonly thought, and that they stand to each other in a kind of circular, symbiotic relationship. Our analysis will be complemented by some historical examples and by further reflections concerning the notion of "progress" in our field.