Pure science is all about the discovery of knowledge: you uncover new things, contemplate the principles and rules that govern matter.
Engineering focuses on application: how can I use these principles to generate new technologies and achieve greater efficiency?
Science is an eminently intellectual profession; it’s no wonder that great thinkers have studied chemistry or physics in their lives: Kafka and Otto-Maria Carpeaux in the former, and Eddington, Heisenberg, Goethe, and many others in the latter.
(Perhaps physics is even more intellectual because it deals much more with immateriality. Chemistry might be a “step down” in science, moving toward materialism.)
In engineering, we don’t see as many intellectuals who delve into more philosophical subjects—at least none come to mind immediately.
Chemistry and Physics, for example, deal with pure science, with theory in its least “useful” state. It is something typical of the intellectual, who does not view things through a utilitarian lens.
Engineering, on the other hand, places more emphasis on the practical, more applicable side, typical of a person focused on results and productivity.
The scientist is the man of abstraction, navigating the world of ideas and seeking the principles that govern the universe. The engineer is the pragmatic, utilitarian man, with his sights set on practical and efficient goals. It’s the intellectual’s vocation agaisnt the enterpreneur’s vocation.
If I were to have a Wikipedia page, it would say that I was a Brazilian writer, essayist, and chemist. I am happy about that: this background helps me maintain that purely intellectual spark.
But of course, this is just an idealization. Today, this isn’t 100% true: in contemporary times, professional training and intellectual vocation are largely dissociated.