Download Engineering Ethics: An Introduction

Engineering Ethics:
An Introduction
A Lecture in SEMFILA
Defining Engineering Ethics
The word ethics has several distinct but
related meanings.
– We rely on context to indicate which meaning
is intended.
Defining Engineering Ethics
• In one sense, ethics is synonymous with
morality#.
• Here, ethics refers to moral* values+ that
are sound or reasonable, actions or
policies that are morally required (right),
morally permissible (all right), or otherwise
morally desirable (good).
*of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior
#doctrine or system of moral conduct
+relative worth, utility, or importance
Defining Engineering Ethics
Accordingly, engineering ethics consists of
the responsibilities and rights that ought to
be endorsed by those engaged in
engineering, and also of desirable ideals
and personal commitments in engineering.
Defining Engineering Ethics
• In a second sense, ethics is the activity
(and field) of studying morality; it is an
inquiry into ethics as described in the first
sense.
• It studies which actions, goals, principles,
policies, and laws are morally justified.
Defining Engineering Ethics
Using this sense, engineering ethics is the
study of the decisions, policies, and values
that are morally desirable in engineering
practice and research.
What is morality?
• Engineering ethics studies moral values in
engineering, but what are moral values?
What is morality?
• Morality is not easily encapsulated in a
single definition.
What is morality?
• Morality is about reasons centered in respect
for other people as well as for ourselves,
reasons that involve caring for their good as
well as our own.
• Moral reasons, for instance, involve
respecting persons by being fair and just with
them, respecting their rights, keeping
promises, avoiding unnecessary offense and
pain to them, and avoiding cheating and
dishonesty.
What is morality?
• Moral reasons also concern caring for
others by sometimes being willing to help
them (especially when they are in
distress), showing gratitude for favors, and
empathizing with their suffering.
• In addition, moral reasons extend to
concern for minimizing suffering to animals
and damage to the environment.
Ethics and Morality
• Often, the terms “ethics” and “morality” are
used interchangeably.
• If there is a subtle difference between the
two terms, it is as follows:
– The term “ethics” is used with a more
formalized statement of moral precepts*,
especially as these precepts are stated in
ethical codes. Thus, it is more common to
refer to “professional ethics” than
“professional morality”.
*a command or principle intended especially as a general rule of action
Three Types of Ethics or Morality
• Common Morality
• Personal Morality
• Professional Ethics
Common Morality
• It is the set of moral beliefs shared by
almost everyone.
– It is the basis, or at least the reference point,
for the other two types of morality.
• When we think of ethics or morality, we
usually think of such precepts as that it is
wrong to murder, lie, cheat, steal, break
promises, harm others physically, and so
forth.
Common Morality
Three characteristics describe common
morality.
– First, many of the precepts of common
morality are negative. According to some
moralists, common morality is designed
primarily to protect individuals from various
types of violations or invasions of their
personhood by others.
Common Morality
Three characteristics describe common
morality.
– Second, although common morality on what
we might call the “ground floor” is primarily
negative, it does contain a positive or
aspirational component in such precepts as
“prevent killing”, “prevent deceit”, “prevent
cheating”, etc. It might also include even more
clearly positive precepts, such as “help the
needy”, “promote human happiness”, and
“protect the natural environment”.
Common Morality
Three characteristics describe common
morality.
– Third, common morality makes a distinction
between an evaluation of a person’s actions
and an evaluation of his intention.
– An evaluation of action is based on an
application of the types of moral precepts
mentioned, but an evaluation of the person
himself is based on intention.
Common Morality
Three characteristics describe common
morality.
– For example, if a driver kills a pedestrian
accidentally, the driver may be charged with
manslaughter (or nothing), but not murder.
The pedestrian is just as dead as if he had
been murdered, but the driver’s intention was
not to kill him, and the law treats the driver
differently, as long as he was not reckless.
The result is the same, but the intent is
different.
Common Morality
Three characteristics describe common
morality.
– As another example, if you convey false
information to another person with the intent
to deceive, you are lying. If you convey the
false information because you do not know
any better, you are not lying and not usually
as morally culpable. Again, the result is the
same (the person is misled), but the intent is
different.
Personal Morality
Personal ethics or personal morality is the
set of moral beliefs that a person holds.
– For most of us, our personal moral beliefs
closely parallel the precepts of common
morality. We believe that murder, lying,
cheating and stealing are wrong.
Personal Morality
Personal ethics or personal morality is the set
of moral beliefs that a person holds.
– However, our personal moral beliefs may differ
from common morality in some areas.
– Thus, we may oppose stem cell research, even
though common morality may not be clear on the
issue.
– Common morality may be unclear at least partially
because the issue did not arise until scientific
advancement made stem cell research possible
and ordinary people have yet to identify decisive
arguments.
Professional Ethics
• It is the set of standards adopted by
professionals insofar as they view
themselves acting as professionals.
• Every profession has its professional
ethics: medicine, law, architecture,
pharmacy, etc.
• Engineering ethics is that set of ethical
standards that applies to the profession of
engineering.
Professional Ethics
There are several important characteristics
of professional ethics.
– First, professional ethics is usually stated in a
formal code. Thus, professional societies
usually have codes of ethics, referred to as
“code of professional responsibility”, “code of
professional conduct”, and the like.
Professional Ethics
There are several important characteristics
of professional ethics.
– Second, the professional codes of ethics of a
given profession focus on the issues that are
important in that profession.
– Third, when one is in a professional
relationship, professional ethics is supposed
to take precedence over personal morality –
at least ordinarily.
Professional Ethics
A complication occurs when the professional’s
personal morality and professional ethics
conflict.
– For example, some pharmacists in the US object
to filling prescriptions for contraceptives for
unmarried women because of their moral beliefs
hold that sex outside of marriage is wrong.
– The code of the American Pharmaceutical
Association makes no provision for refusing to fill
a prescription on the basis of an objection from
one’s personal moral beliefs.
Professional Ethics
A complication occurs when the professional’s
personal morality and professional ethics
conflict.
– In fact, the code of the American Pharmaceutical
Association mandates honoring the autonomy of
the client.
– Nevertheless, some pharmacists have put their
personal morality ahead of their professional
obligations.
Professional Ethics
There are several important characteristics
of professional ethics.
– Fourth, professional ethics sometimes differs
from personal morality in its degree of
restriction of personal conduct.
– Sometimes, professional ethics is more
restrictive than personal morality, and
sometimes it is less restrictive.
Professional Ethics
Suppose engineer Joe refuses to design
military hardware because he believes war
is immoral. Engineering codes do not
prohibit engineers from designing military
hardware, so this refusal is based on
personal ethics and not on professional
ethics. Here, Joe’s personal ethics is more
restrictive than her professional ethics.
Professional Ethics
On the other hand, suppose civil engineer Jack
refuses to participate in the design of a project that
he believes will be contrary to the principles of
sustainable development, which are set out in the
code of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
He may not personally believe these guidelines are
correct, but he might (correctly) believe he is
obligated to follow them in his professional work
because they are stated in the code of ethics. In
this case, Jack’s professional ethics is more
restrictive than his personal ethics.
Professional Ethics
There are several important characteristics
of professional ethics.
– Fifth, professional ethics, like ethics in
general, has a negative and a positive
dimension.
– Indeed, being ethical has two aspects:
• preventing and avoiding evil (“the negative face”)
• doing or promoting good (“the positive face”)
Professional Ethics
• Professionals have both an obligation not
to harm their clients, patients, and
employers, and an obligation to contribute
to their well-being.
• The negative aspect of professional ethics
is oriented toward the prevention of
professional malpractice and harm to the
public. This can be called “preventive
ethics”.
Professional Ethics
• Professionals also have an obligation to
use their knowledge and expertise to
promote the public good.
• This may be referred to as “aspirational
ethics” because it encourages aspirations
or ideals in professionals to promote the
welfare of the public.
Professional Ethics
Professional ethics has a number of
distinct characteristics, many of which
serve to differentiate it from personal
ethics and common morality.
– It is usually stated (in part) in a code of ethics.
– It focuses on issues that are important in a
given profession.
– It often takes precedence over personal
morality when a professional is in his
professional capacity.
Professional Ethics
Professional ethics has a number of
distinct characteristics, many of which
serve to differentiate it from personal
ethics and common morality.
– It sometimes differs from personal morality in
its degree of restriction of personal conduct.
Professional Ethics
Professional ethics can be usefully divided
into
– those precepts that aim at preventing
professional misconduct and engineering
disasters (preventive ethics), and
– those positive ideals oriented toward
producing a better life for humankind through
technology (aspirational ethics).
Engineering Ethics
• Engineering ethics refers to professional
ethics, not one’s personal ethics or what is
often called common morality.
• To fully appreciate professional ethics, we
must define what is meant by a profession.
Engineering as a Profession
• We have been speaking of engineering as a
profession, but what exactly is a profession?
• In a broad sense, a profession is any
occupation that provides a means by which
to earn a living.
• In a narrower sense, professions are those
forms of work involving advanced expertise,
self-regulation, and concerted service to the
public good.
Advanced Expertise
Professions require sophisticated skills
(knowing-how) and theoretical knowledge
(knowing-why) in exercising judgment that
is not entirely routine or susceptible to
mechanization.
Advanced Expertise
Preparation to engage in the work typically
requires extensive formal education,
including technical studies in one or more
areas of systematic knowledge as well as
some broader studies in the liberal arts
(humanities, sciences, arts). Generally,
continuing education and updating
knowledge are also required.
Self-Regulation
• Well-established societies of professionals are
allowed by the public to play a major role in
setting standards for admission to the
profession, drafting codes of ethics, enforcing
standards of conduct, and representing the
profession before the public and the
government.
• Often, this is referred to as the “autonomy of the
profession”, which forms the basis for individual
professionals to exercise autonomous
professional judgment in their work.
Public Good
• The occupation serves some important
public good, or aspect of public good, and it
does so by making a concerted effort to
maintain high ethical standards throughout
the profession.
• For example, medicine is directed toward
promoting health, law toward protecting the
public’s legal rights, and engineering toward
technological solutions to problems
concerning the public’s well-being, safety,
and health.
Are professionals elitists?
• Some critics argue that the attempt to
distinguish professions from other forms of
work is an elitist attempt to elevate the
prestige and income of certain group of
workers.
• Innumerable forms of work contribute to the
public good, even though they do not require
advanced expertise: for example, hair cutting,
garbage collection, professional sports, etc.
Are professionals elitists?
• However, professionalism should not be
primarily about social status.
• The concerted efforts to maintain high
standards of moral responsibility, together with
a sophisticated level of required skill and the
requisite autonomy to do so, warrants the
recognition traditionally associated with the
word “profession”.
• With great privilege comes great responsibility.
Professionalism
Running through various accounts of
professionalism is the idea that ethical
commitment, or at least a claim to it, is
crucial to a claim to be a professional.
– This means that professional ethics is central
to the idea of professionalism.
The Negative Face of
Engineering Ethics: Preventive Ethics
Preventive ethics is commonly formulated
in rules, and these rules are usually stated
in codes of ethics.
– These codes of ethics are primarily sets of
rules, and these rules are for the most part
negative in character.
– The rules are often in the form of prohibitions,
or statements that probably should be
understood primarily as prohibitions.
Why so negative?
First, common sense and common
morality support the idea that the first duty
of moral agents, including professionals, is
not to harm others – not to murder, lie,
cheat, or steal, for example.
– Before engineers have an obligation to do
good, they have an obligation to do no harm.
Why so negative?
Second, the codes are formulated in terms
of rules that can be enforced, and it is
easier to enforce negative rules than
positive rules.
– A rule that states “avoid undisclosed conflicts
of interest” is relatively easy to enforce, in
comparison with a rule that states “hold
paramount the welfare of the public”.
Why so negative?
Third, the negative orientation of
engineering ethics is the influence of what
are often called “disaster cases”, which
are incidents that results, or could have
resulted, in loss of life or harm due to
technology.
The Positive Face of Engineering:
Aspirational Ethics
Engineers do not choose engineering as a
career in order to prevent disasters and
avoid professional misconduct.
– To be sure, many engineering students desire
the financial rewards and social position that
an engineering career promises, and this is
legitimate.
The Positive Face of Engineering:
Aspirational Ethics
Engineering students are also attracted by
the prospect of making a difference in the
world, and doing so in a positive way.
– They are excited by projects that alleviate
human drudgery through labor-saving devices,
eliminate disease by providing clean water and
sanitation, develop new medical devices that
save lives, create automobiles that run on less
fuel and are less polluting, and preserve the
environment with recyclable products.
The Positive Face of Engineering:
Aspirational Ethics
Personal commitments to ideals can add
an important new and positive dimension
to engineering ethics.
The Positive Face of Engineering:
Aspirational Ethics
In elaborating on aspirational ethics, one
can think of those professional qualities
that enable one to be more effective in
promoting human welfare.
The Positive Face of Engineering:
Aspirational Ethics
Promoting the welfare of the public can be
done in many different ways, as for
instance,
– designing a new energy-saving device in the
course of one’s ordinary employment, or
– using one’s vacation time to design and help
install a water purification system in an
underdeveloped country.
The Positive Face of Engineering:
Aspirational Ethics
• Let us call the more extreme and altruistic
examples of aspirational ethics as “good
works” and the more ordinary and
mundane examples as “ordinary positive
engineering”.
• Although the division between the two is
not always sharp, the distinction is useful.
Good Works
These refer to the more outstanding and
altruistic examples of aspirational ethics –
those that often involve an element of selfsacrifice.
– Good works are exemplary actions and
commendable conduct that go beyond the
basic requirements associated with a
particular social role and beyond what is
professionally required.
Good Works Example
Engineering students from the University
of Arizona chapter of Engineers Without
Borders are working on a water supply
and purification project in the village of
Mafi Zongo, Ghana, West Africa. The
project will supply 30 or more villages, with
approximately 10,000 people, with safe
drinking water.
Ordinary Positive Engineering
Most examples of aspirational ethics do
not all into the category of good works.
– They are done in the course of one’s job, and
they do not involve any heroism or selfsacrifice.
– Specifically, they consist of actions that
usually involve a more conscious and creative
attempt to do something that contributes to
human welfare.
Ordinary Positive Engineering Example
Students in a senior design course at Texas
A&M University (TAMU) decided to build an
auditory visual tracker for use in evaluating
the training of visual skills in children with
disabilities. The engineering students met the
children for whom the equipment was being
designed, and this encounter motivated the
students that they worked overtime to
complete the project. At the end of the project,
they got to see the children use the tracker.
Aspirational Ethics and
Professional Character: The Good Engineer
Two features of aspirational ethics are
important:
– First, the more positive aspect of engineering
ethics has a motivational element that is not
present in the same way in preventive ethics.
– Second, there is a discretionary element in
aspirational ethics: an engineer has a
considerable degree of freedom in how he or
she promotes public welfare.
Aspirational Ethics and
Professional Character: The Good Engineer
In aspirational ethics, instead of asking
“what kind of rules are important in
directing the more positive and
aspirational elements of engineering
work?”, one would ponder, “what type of
person, professionally speaking, will be
most likely to promote the welfare of the
public through his or her engineering
work?”
Aspirational Ethics and
Professional Character: The Good Engineer
• Let us use the term “professional
character” to refer to those character traits
that serve to define the kind of person one
is, professionally speaking.
• The “good engineer” is the engineer who
has those traits of professional character
that make him or her the best or ideal
engineer.
Aspirational Ethics and
Professional Character: The Good Engineer
Furthermore, let us use the term
“professional character portrait” to refer to
the set of character traits that would make
an engineer a good engineer, and
especially an effective practitioner of
aspirational ethics.
Professional Character Portrait
of a Good Engineer
• Professional Pride
• Social awareness
• Environmental consciousness
Professional Pride
• This refers in particular to pride in
technical excellence.
• If an engineer wants his/her work as a
professional to contribute to public welfare,
the first thing he/she must do is to be sure
that her professional expertise is at the
highest possible level.
Professional Pride
Professional expertise in engineering
includes not only the obvious proficiencies
in mathematics, physics, and engineering
science, but also those capacities and
sensitivities that only come with a certain
level of experience.
Social Awareness
This refers to an awareness of the way in
which technology both affects (influences)
and is affected (influenced) by the larger
social environment.
– For example, technology can be used by
grassroots movements, like what protesters do
in China and bloggers do in the United States.
– On the other hand, the desire by the elite, for
instance, to “deskill” labor drives the
introduction of automation technology.
Social Awareness
• In any case, engineers are often called on
to make design decisions that are not
socially neutral.
– This often requires sensitivities and
commitments that cannot be incorporated into
rules.
– Thus, social awareness is an important aspect
of a professional character that will take
seriously the obligation to promote public
welfare through professional work.
Environmental Consciousness
• Environmental issues will increasingly play
a crucial role in almost all aspects of
engineering.
• Human welfare will be seen as integral to
preserving the integrity of the natural
environment that supports human and all
other forms of life.
References
The information contained in this Powerpoint
lecture is excerpted and derived from:
1) Engineering Ethics, 4th Edition (2008), by
Charles Harris, Michael Pritchard and Michael
Rabins
2) Introduction to Engineering Ethics, 2nd Edition
(2009), by Roland Schinzinger and Mike
Martin
3) http://www.merriam-webster.com/