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Why ethics are important for engineers
How does technology affect ethics
Why ethics are important for engineers
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In this essay I shall consider whether the primary goal of a course on engineering should be to teach students the standards of professional conduct as set out by major engineering codes of ethics, or if they should think autonomously about moral issues.
The speaker in the essay question suggest that the former argument is correct, and that engineering courses should have the goal of teaching students to master the standards set out by codes of ethics as following these is what engineering ethics consists of. This means that students should be taught that instead of making their own decisions about moral issues, they are to follow the guidelines set out for them by engineering institutions. Many agree with this philosophy, for example Thomas Strubel says, ‘without the code of ethics as a guide engineers would be ill-suited to take on challenges of the future’ [1]. His reasoning for his argument is that engineers carry out work that have a great-influence on society and the environment and hence they need some form of guidance on how to operate. Strubel believes that as we move into the future the demands faced by engineers will be ever greater and hence the dangers of making wrong decisions will also increase, if engineers are left to think autonomously.
Another reason students should be taught the standards set out in the codes of ethics is that the codes offer them help and advice in many situations. Martin and Schinzinger sums up the functions of the codes [2]; firstly they say that the codes provide inspiration and guidance to engineers. This guidance helps engineers in problematic situations, and also encourages how engineers should represent their profession in public. They also tell engineers that they need to thin...
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...thics’, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Fall 2001
Unknown Author, ‘Ford Pinto Case-Study’ (Internet). Available from: http://www.engineering.com/Library/ArticlesPage/tabid/85/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/166/Ford-Pinto.aspx, Accessed 30.11.2010
Martin, M.W. and Schinzinger, R. (2004) ‘Ethics in Engineering (Fourth Edition)’. McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Davis, M. (1998) ‘Thinking Like an Engineer’.
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics
Davis, M.(2005) ‘Engineering Ethics’.
Ashgate
Chetwynd, S. (2004) ‘Week 6 Lecture – Professional Codes of Ethics’
Strubel, T. ‘The Civil Engineer of 2025 – Ethics Come First’. Available from: www.asce.org/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=2147489600, Accessed 30.11.2010
Luegenbiehl, H.C. (1991) ‘Codes of ethics and the moral education of engineers’, D.G. Johnson, Ed. Englewood Cliffs, p. 137.
Martin, M.W. and Schinzinger, R. (2005) Ethics in Engineering. 4th ed. New York: McGraw Hill.
Hoover, K., & Fowler, W. T. (n.d). Studies in ethics, safety, and liability for engineers
Virtues are both important and inherent within any engineering field. Virtues outline acceptable and unacceptable characteristics for an engineer. Moreover, virtue ethics places emphasis on character rather than rights or regulations. Character is divided into two components, one being considered morally desirable (virtue), and one being considered morally undesirable (vice). Common virtues of engineers are honesty and competence. While typical vices of engineers are arrogance and incompetence. This paper will outline Aristotle’s Virtue ethics, and to what extent virtue ethics has impacted me here at Texas A&M.
The National Society of Professional Engineers code of ethics provides engineers with rules that must be followed to act ethically in the engineering profession. Engineers must follow the code of ethics in all the situations they encountered during their profession but sometimes the application of this rules are challenge by moral decision that are not applicable for the code of ethics. The two videos shown in class highlight two different scenarios were the code of ethics was applied in different perspectives.
Most common ethical issues an engineer faces are that providing a quality product at a reasonable cost and safety of the public. At time, clients want more than they are willing to pay for, in this case engineer must decide whether to shorten the design to save money and time or not to take the job they offered. The ethical engineer modules or designs are not only for the safety and low manufacture cost, but also for reduce manufacture cost for the entire design. The professional engineer’s duty is to find the correct manufacture cost and whether the product will be safe to use. Often times, an engineer may experience a situations in which they can’t get the client or manager satisfied of the product. In order to maintain an ethical demeanor in such cases, an engineer may have to refuse to approve the project design.
There are many ethical, political and legal issues that a structural engineer faces on a daily basis. How then does the profession deal with these kinds of dilemmas? Are their any guidelines, and what are the guidelines? They’re several professional organizations that publish regulations, but there is no standard that exists in the structural engineering profession.
From the start of this course, I have kept asking myself, what is the true purpose of emphasising engineering ethics? For people who always follow the profession of ethics, iterating such thing again and again will only bring them boredom. On the contrary, for those people who enjoy a completely free life, the code of ethics will not be able to constrain them even a little because they don 't care about rules from the very beginning. Therefore, from this perspective, as its biggest target, engineers who might defy engineering ethics will not be influenced by such notion. Considering this, I believe the appearance of engineering ethics is not to play the role of serious law that regulates the behaviour
The Christian worldview makes the profession of engineering both justified and more purposeful. Although Christian engineers are not called to be full-time ministers, they are abel to glorify God and be a shining light through ethical, diligent work in the engineering field. For this reason, Christian students going into the field of engineering can be excited and honored to play such a unique role in God’s
Becoming a professional engineer has many advantages, affecting each engineering field differently. For example, a mechanical engineer it gives them more responsibilities and authority compared to a standard engineer, therefore a Pr eng will be able to sign off documents that a normal engineer wouldn’t be able to. It also gives credibility to a consulting engineer.
Poel, Ibo Van De, and Lambèr M. M. Royakkers. Ethics, Technology, and Engineering: An Introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.
A virtue is a trait believed to be morally good, and a vice is a trait believed to be morally wrong. Eventually, a person will make a decision and take action based on their virtues and vices. Therefore, it is virtues that help engineers reach their purpose and evaluate ethical behavior. This paper will attempt to generate a list of virtues that an engineer must possess in order to be regarded as virtuous. Before doing this, Aristotle’s virtue ethics, virtues of thought, and virtues of character will be explained.
Ethics plays a role in every aspect of life. We need it to keep us in line and ensure that we do the right thing for ourselves and others. If we didn’t have a Code of Ethics in construction, none of the homes, buildings, roads, or businesses would be able to function properly because they would be getting ripped off in more ways than one by the people they paid to construct their home. You have to have a solid foundation to build on, and that is why the construction industry has a Code of Ethics that every employee should follow. Not for the sake of the client, but for the sake of the
This code of ethics is not a legal document, so if any violations are committed, a person cannot be arrested. However, it may result in expulsion from different professional societies, such as NSPE or ASME. Any expulsion from a professional society generally results in the inability to practice in the engineering field. The importance of professional ethics is to keep up the moral and ethical principles that are rooted in centuries of societal and human interactions. One example of professional ethics failure is the Ford Pinto explosion. Ford neglected to add reinforcements to protect the fuel tanks on their brand model Pinto. People driving a Pinto were endangered by the exposed fuel tanks, since they had a reputation of catching
Tavani, H. T. (2007). Ethics and technology. Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons Inc. (Ethical theories in the introduction)
McLaren, B. (2010, July 22). The ethical responsibility of engineers and the rest of us, too [Web log article]. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-d-mclaren/the-ethical-responsibilit_b_653812.html