The paper describes the philosophical reasons, objectives and the needs of Mechatronics courses. It also reviews the aspects of Mechatronics design philosophies and concurrent practices for achieving the physical embodiment of the designs that are seen appropriate to the challenge. The adoption of such philosophies beginning at conceptual design level requires engineers with a new range of skills, attitudes and a concomitant stimulus to the providers of training and education. Furthermore, the interaction of humans with engineering systems and issues within the engineering discipline are discussed.