These questions should lead to clarifications on concepts, principles and issues in ethics. Examples are: A) What is ‘SAFETY’ and how is it related to ‘RISK’ B) ‘Protect the safety, health and welfare of public’-What does this statement mean? C) What is a bribe? D) What is a ‘profession’ and who are ‘professionals’?
These are about ‘what ought to be’ and ‘what is good’. These questions identify and also justify the morally desirable norms or standards. Some of the questions are: A. How far engineers are obligated to protect public safety in given situations? B. When should engineers start whistle blowing on dangerous practices of their employers? C. Whose values are primary in taking a moral decision, employee, public or govt? D. Why are engineers obligated to protect public safety? E. When is govt justified in interfering on such issues and why?
MICRO-ETHICS emphasizes typically everyday problems that can take on significant proportions in an engineer’s life or entire engineering office. MACRO-ETHICS addresses societal problems that are often shunted aside and are not addressed until they unexpectedly resurface on a regional or national scale. MORAL PROBLEMS IN ENGINEERING (SOME EXAMPLES) 1.1. An inspector discovered faulty construction equipment and applied a violation tag, preventing its use. The supervisor, a construction manager viewed the case as a minor abrasion of the safety regulations and ordered the removal of the tag to speed up the project. When the inspector objected to this, he was threatened with disciplinary action. 1.2. An electric utility company applied for a permit to operate a nuclear power plant. The licensing agency was interested in knowing what emergency measures had been established for humans safety in case of reactor malfunctioning. The utility engineers described the alarm system and arrangements with local hospitals for treatment. They did not emphasize that this measures applied to plant personnel only and that they had no plans for the surrounding population. When enquired about their omission, they said it was not their responsibility. 1.3. A chemical plant dumped wastes in a landfill. Hazardous substances found their way into the underground water table. The plant’s engineers were aware of the situation but did not Change the method of disposal because their competitors did it the same cheap way, and no law explicitly forbade the practice. 1.4. Electronics Company ABC geared up for production of its own version of a popular new item. The product was not yet ready for sale, but even so, pictures and impressive specifications appeared in advertisements. Prospective customers were led to believe that it was available off the shelf and were drawn away from competing lines.
Ethics is an activity and area of inquiry. It is the activity of understanding moral values, resolving moral issues and the area of study resulting from that activity. When we speak of ethical problems, issues and controversies, we mean to distinguish them from non moral problems. Ethics is used to refer to the particular set of beliefs, attitudes and habits that a person or group displays concerning moralities. Ethics and its grammatical variants can be used as synonyms for ‘morally correct’.
Lying Deliberate deception Withholding information Failing to adequately promote the dissemination of information Failure to seek out the truth Revealing confidential or proprietary information Allowing one’s judgment to be corrupted.
Trimming – “smoothing of irregularities to make data look extremely accurate and precise” Cooking – “retaining only those results that fit the theory and discarding others”. Forging – “inventing some or all of the research data…” Plagiarism – misappropriating intellectual property. Conflicts of interest (such as accepting gifts.) – actual – potential – apparent
Self-interest. Fear. Self-deception. Ignorance. Egocentric tendencies. Microscopic vision. Groupthink.
Stimulating the moral imagination Recognizing ethical issues Developing analytical skills Eliciting a sense of responsibility Tolerating disagreement and ambiguity
“Technology can have no legitimacy unless it inflicts no harm”-Adm.H.G. Rickover, father of the US nuclear navy. – What does Adm. Rickover mean by this? – Should engineers avoid technology that has the potential for inflicting harm on a society or its members? Engineers have an ethical and social responsibility to themselves, their clients and society. Practically (although there is much debate about this), engineering ethics is about balancing cost, schedule, and risk. ENGINEERING ETHICS is: The study of moral issues and decisions confronting individuals and organizations involved in engineering and the study of related questions about moral ideals, character, policies and relationships of people and organizations involved in technological activity.
There are two aspects to ethics: The first involves the ability to discern right from wrong, good from evil and propriety from impropriety. The second involves the commitment to do what is right, good and proper. Ethics entails action. An ALGEBRA course will teach you ALGEBRA. A HISTORY course will teach you HISTORY. A MANAGEMENT course will teach you principles of MANAGEMENT. But, Will an ETHICS course teach you to be ETHICAL? Think