Download Engineers as Responsible Experimenters

Engineers as Responsible
Experimenters
Engineers –Shared Responsibility
• Engineers are not the sole experimenters
– Managers
– Marketing people
– Public
But, “with knowledge comes responsibility”
•Engineers are in a unique position to:
– Monitor projects
– Identify risks
– Develop facts for informed consent
• An engineering professional will take on the
responsibility!
To fulfill their obligations as
responsible experimenters, engineers
must:
• A Primary Obligation to protect the safety of human subjects, providing a
safe exit whenever possible, and respect their right of informed consent
• use imaginative forecasting of possible side effects, and reasonable efforts
to monitor them
• have autonomous, personal involvement in all aspects of a project
• accept accountability for the results
• display technical competence and other attributes of responsible
professionals
For Remembrance
• Informing for consent requires excellent
communications skills in order to
provide
appropriate information in an understandable
way.
• Also, cooperation with other disciplines is often
essential to assess potential side effects and
monitor effects of "social experiments" through
engineering.. (Recall Alasdair MacIntyre's virtue
of professional responsibility which includes: i)
self direction, ii) public spirited, iii) team work
iv) proficiency. (Martin & Schinzinger, 42)
• Engineers should also display technical
competence and other attributes of
professionalism .
• Definite “Style” of Engineering
• Contemporary Threats
Contemporary Threats
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Conscientiousness
Relevant Information
Moral Autonomy
Accountability
Responsible Experimentalists
1. Conscientiousness: Protect safety knowledge,
respect right of consent of public
2. Relevant Information / Comprehensive
perspective: Awareness of experimental nature of
projects, forecasting, monitoring
3. Moral autonomy: Personally engaged,
thoughtful, involvement in project
4. Accountability: Accept responsibility for results
of a project (avoid fragmentation, diffusion, time
pressures)
1.CONSCIENTIOUSNESS
• People act responsibly to the extent that they
conscientiously commit themselves to live
according to moral values .
• Self interest
• Moral Agents
Individuals who think solely of their own
good to the exclusion of the good of others are
not moral agents
Conscientiousness moral commitment
• a sensitivity to the full range of moral values
and responsibilities that are relevant to a
given situation
• Willingness to develop the skill and expend
the effort needed to reach the best balance
possible among those considerations .
• Conscientiousness implies consciousness ( in
the sense of awareness), because intent is not
sufficient.
Open eyes, Open ears and an Open mind are
required to recognize a given situation, its
implications and who is involved or affected.
Working Conditions
• The contemporary ( modern or present)
working conditions of engineers tend a
narrow moral vision solely to the obligations
that accompany employee status.
Engineers work benefits
• 90% of engineers are salaried employees
work in large bureaucracies ( organizations or
administrations ) under great pressure to function
smoothly within the organization
• Benefits :Prudent self interest and concern for
one’s family  make it easy to emphasize as
primary the obligations to one‘s employer
Moral aspiration (goal)
• Minimal negative duties:
– Not falsifying data
– Not violating patent rights
– Not breaching confidentiality
Engineering as Social Experimentation
• Restores vision of engineers as guardians of
the public interest  professional duty it is to
guard the Welfare and safety of those affected
by engineering projects .
• Engineers should not impose their own views
of the social good upon society
2. RELEVANT INFORMATION
• Conscientiousness is blind without relevant
factual information.
• Shows moral concern that involves
commitment to obtain and properly assess all
available information pertinent to meeting
one’s moral obligations
• Grasp the context of one’s work( which makes
it count as an activity having a moral import )
• Specialization
• Division of Labor
Example
• A company may produce items with
obsolescence built into them , or the items
might promote unnecessary energy usage
• It is easy to place the burden on the sales
department : “Let them inform the
customers”
• It may be natural to thus rationalize one’s
neglect of safety or cost considerations , but it
shows no moral concern.
• Consequences of what one does
• Regarding engineering as social
experimentation :
– Engineer should view his/her specialized activities
in a project as part of a larger whole having a
social impact.
– Goal is to practice “Defensive engineering “ or “
preventive technology “
– Moral Responsibility
MORAL AUTONOMY
(Morally Self directed )
When People are morally autonomous ?
• People are morally autonomous when their
moral conduct and principles of action are
their own.
• Moral Beliefs and attitudes basis of Critical
reflection
Moral beliefs and attitudes must be held on the
basis of critical reflection rather than merely through
passive adoption ie... Particular conventions of one’s
society, church or profession
• Moral Beliefs and attitudes must integrate
into the core of an individual’s personality in a
manner that leads to committed action .
• Cannot be agreed abstractly and formally or
verbally .
• Engineers working for an employer  sells
one’s labor and skills may make it seem that
one has thereby disowned and forfeited
power over one’s actions
• Viewing engineering as social experimentation
can help one overcome the above tendency .
ATTITUDE OF MANAGEMENT
• Plays a decisive (vital) role in how much moral
autonomy engineers feel they have.
• Long term interest
• Thoughtful &
• involvement in project
3. ACCOUNTABILITY
• Responsible people accept moral
responsibility for their actions.
• Accept responsibility for results of a project
1. fragmentation,
2. diffusion,
3. time pressures