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Engineering education in the early 21st century is being transformed in many ways to meet the technological challenges of the future. In particular, the role of the humanities and social science in engineering coursework is under new scrutiny, as educators attempt to strengthen students’ proficiencies in aspects of the profession including interpersonal and intercultural skills, assessment of broader impacts of technical work, and especially ethics. These developments are often framed as responses to the demands of employers and institutions, who view these ‘soft’ skills as increasingly relevant to the work life of technical professionals. In this concept paper, we wish to pursue a somewhat different line of thought: We will examine arguments from the philosophy of science and technology, and from the social sciences, about the value of teaching engineers (as well as other technical professionals) to think through humanistic, social, and cultural lenses. We will review a range of perspectives supporting educational reform along these lines, with a particular focus on work in the recent pragmatic tradition (including Sellars, Mitcham, and others). Having established a range of theoretical defenses for educational reform along these lines in engineering fields, we will then consider the distinctions among them and how these insights might be applied most effectively in engineering curricula. We will conclude by reviewing available evidence for the practical utility of such interventions. We hope, by situating current reforms more firmly within a principled framework of ideas, to provide deeper support for positive change in the education of future engineers.