Unit 2

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UNIT – II

ENGINEERING ETHICS
UNIT 2 ENGINEERING ETHICS
Senses of ‘Engineering Ethics’-Variety of Moral
Issues-Types Of Inquiry-Moral Dilemmas- Moral
Autonomy-Kohlberg’s Theory-Gilligan’s Theory-
Consensus And Controversy- Professions And
Professionalism-Professional Ideals And Virtues-
Theories About Right Action-Self-Interest-Customs
And Religion-Uses Of Ethical Theories.
CONTENTS
Senses of ‘Engineering Ethics’
Variety of Moral Issues
Types of inquiry
Moral dilemmas
Moral autonomy
Kohlberg’s theory
Gilligan’s theory
Professions and professionalism
Professional ideals and virtues
Theories about right action
Self-interest
Customs and religion
Uses of ethical theories
SENSES OF ETHICS
• Ethics is an activity of
– Understanding the moral values
– Resolve the moral issues
– Justify the moral judgment

• Ethics refers to a set of beliefs, attitudes, and


habits that a person or group displays Concerning
morality.
• Ethics is a purely factual matter about explaining
beliefs and actions related to morality.
• Ethics refers to being “morally correct”
– People’s action can be spoken as “ethical” or “unethical”
– Individuals can be evaluated as “ethical” or “unethical”
WHAT IS ENGINEERING ETHICS

• Engineering Ethics is an activity of


• Understanding the moral values that
ought to guide the engineering profession
• Resolve the moral issues in the profession
• Justify the moral judgment concerning the
profession.
MORALITY

• Morality is concerned with principles and practices of


morals such as:
• What ought or ought not to be done in a given
situation?
• What is right or wrong about the handling of a
situation?
• What is good or bad about the people, policies, and
ideals involved?
MORALITY VS. ETHICS
MORAL REASONING
• “Engineering design is a good one”
– Meets Specifications – Technical Value
– Specifications has moral content - Moral Reasons
• Designed in such a way that a safe, reliable and environmental
friendly product can be produced
• Moral Reasons
– Require us to respect other people as well as ourselves, to care for
their good as well as their own Respecting persons by being fair and
just with them, respecting their rights, keeping promises, avoiding
unnecessary offense and pain to them, avoiding cheating and
dishonesty
VARIETY OF MORAL ISSUES

• Two Approaches to engineering ethics:


• Typical, everyday problems that can take
on significant proportions in and
engineer’s life
• Societal Problems that are often shunted
aside and are not addressed until they
unexpectedly resurface
HOW DO MORAL PROBLEMS ARISE IN
ENGINEERING
• Examples
– Faculty construction equipment
– Applying for a permit to operate a nuclear power plant
– Chemical plant dumping wastes in a landfill
– Advertisements from an electronic company for a
product which is not ready for sale
• Engineer might be faced with contrary opinions
– Within the firm
– From the client
– From other firms within the industry
CHALLENGES ON HANDLING MORAL
ISSUES
➢ To what extent can a supervisor be an authoritative guide to
engineer’s conduct ?
➢ What does one do when there are differences of judgement ?
➢ Should one always follow the law to the letter?
➢ Is an engineer to do no more than what the specifications say, even if
there are problems more serious than those initially anticipated?
➢ How far does an engineer’s responsibility extend into the realm of
influencing the social impact of the projects he or she participates
in?
TYPES OF INQUIRIES

• The three types of inquiries, in solving ethical


problems are:
• Normative inquiry
• Conceptual inquiry
• Factual or descriptive inquiry
NORMATIVE INQUIRY
• It seeks to identify and justify the morally-desirable
norms or standards that should guide individuals and
groups.
• It also has the theoretical goal of justifying particular
moral judgments.
NORMATIVE INQUIRY
Example:
How far does the obligation of engineers to protect
public safety extend in any given situation?
When, if ever, should engineers be expected to blow
whistle on dangerous practices of their employers?
Whose values ought to be primary in making judgment
about acceptable risks in design for a public transport
system or a nuclear plant? Is it of management, senior
engineers, government, voters or all of them?
When and why is the government justified in interfering
with the organizations?
What are the reasons on which the engineers show their
obligations to their employees or clients or the public?
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CONCEPTUAL INQUIRY
• It is directed to clarify the meaning of concepts or ideas or principles
that are expressed by words or by questions and statements.
• Examples:
– What is meant by safety?
– How is it related to risk?
– What is a bribe?
– What is a profession?

• When moral concepts are discussed,


normative and conceptual issues are
closely interconnected.
FACTUAL OR DESCRIPTIVE INQUIRY

• It is aimed to obtain facts needed for understanding and resolving


value issues.
• Researchers conduct factual inquiries using mathematical or
statistical techniques.
• The inquiry provide important information on business realities,
engineering practice, and the effectiveness of professional societies in
fostering moral conduct, the procedures used in risk assessment, and
psychological profiles of engineers.
FACTUAL OR DESCRIPTIVE INQUIRY
• The facts provide not only the reasons for moral
problems but also enable us to develop alterative
ways of resolving moral problems.
• Example
1.How were the benefits assessed?
2.What are procedures followed in risk
assessment?
3.What are short-term and long-term
effects of drinking water being polluted?
4.Who conducted the tests on materials?

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MORAL DILEMMA
• Dilemmas are situations in which
– Moral reasons come into conflict
– The application of moral values are problems, and one
is not clear of the immediate choice or solution of the
problems.
– Moral reasons could be rights, duties, goods or
obligations.
– These situations do not mean that things had gone
wrong, but they only indicate the presence of moral
complexity.This makes the decision making complex.
SITUATIONS LEADING TO MORAL DILEMMA

The three complex situations leading


to moral dilemmas are:

The problem of vagueness


• One is unable to distinguish between good
and bad (right or wrong) principle. Good
means an action that is obligatory. For
example, code of ethic specifies that one
should obey the laws and follow standards.
Refuse bribe or accept the gift, and maintain
confidentiality
SITUATIONS LEADING TO MORAL
DILEMMA
The problem of conflicting reasons
•One is unable to choose between two good moral
solutions. One has to fix priority, through knowledge or
value system.

The problem of disagreement


•There may be two or more solutions and none of them
mandatory. These solutions may be better or worse in
some respects but not in all aspects. One has to
interpret, apply different morally reasons, and analyze
and rank the decisions. Select the best suitable, under
the existing and the most probable conditions.
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STEPS TO SOLVE DILEMMA
• Identification of the moral factors and reasons.
• Collection of all information, data, and facts
• Rank the moral options
• Generate alternate courses of action to resolve
the dilemma
• Discuss with colleagues and obtain their
perspectives, priorities, and suggestions on
various alternatives
• Decide upon a final course of action, based on
priority fixed or assumed
MORAL AUTONOMY
• Moral autonomy is defined as, decisions and actions exercised on the
basis of moral concern for other people and recognition of good
moral reasons.
• Alternatively, moral autonomy means ‘self determinant or
independent’.
• The autonomous people hold moral beliefs and attitudes based on
their critical reflection rather than on passive adoption of the
conventions of the society or profession.
• Moral autonomy may also be defined as a skill and habit of thinking
rationally about the ethical issues, on the basis of moral concern.
MORAL AUTONOMY

• If management views profitability is more important than


consistent quality and retention of the customers that
discourage the moral autonomy, engineers are compelled to
seek the support from their professional societies and outside
organizations for moral support.
KOHLBERG THEORY

• Kohlberg suggested there are three levels


of moral development, based on the type
of reasoning and motivation of the
individuals in response to moral questions
• Pre-conventional
• Conventional
• Post-conventional
Pre-Conventional
– Right conduct for an individual is regarded as whatever directly
benefits oneself.
– At this level, individuals are motivated by obedience or the
desire to avoid punishment or to satisfy their own needs
– All young children exhibit this tendency.
Conventional
– People respect the law and authority

Post Conventional
– People begin to account for the differing values, opinions and
beliefs of other people.
KO H L B E R G T H E O RY

• The following is one example of the dilemmas Kohlberg presented.

"Heinz Steals the Drug”


In Europe, a woman was near death from a special kind
of cancer.There was one drug that the doctors thought
might save her. It was a form of radium that a druggist
in the same town had recently discovered. The drug was
expensive to make, but the druggist was charging ten
times what the drug cost him to make. He paid $200
for the radium and charged $2,000 for a small dose of
the drug.
KOHL BER G T HE ORY
The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he
knew to borrow the money, but he could only get
together about $ 1,000 which is half of what it cost. He
told the druggist that his wife was dying and asked him
to sell it cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist
said: "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going to make
money from it." So Heinz got desperate and broke into
the man's store to steal the drug-for his wife. Should the
husband have done that?

• Kohlberg was not interested so much in the answer to the question


of whether Heinz was wrong or right, but in the reasoning for each
participant's decision. The responses were then classified into
various stages of reasoning in his theory of moral development.
KOHLBERG THEORY
• Level 1. Preconventional Morality
Stage 1 - Obedience and Punishment
The earliest stage of moral development is especially
common in young children, but adults are also capable of
expressing this type of reasoning. At this stage, children see
rules as fixed and absolute. Obeying the rules is important
because it is a means to avoid punishment.
Stage 2 - Individualism and Exchange
At this stage of moral development, children account for
individual points of view and judge actions based on how
they serve individual needs. In the Heinz dilemma, children
argued that the best course of action was the choice that
best-served Heinz’s needs. Reciprocity is possible, but only
if it serves one's own interests.
KOHLBERG THEORY
• Level 2. Conventional Morality
Stage 3 - Interpersonal Relationships
often referred to as the "good boy-good girl"
orientation, this stage of moral development is focused
on living up to social expectations and roles. There is an
emphasis on conformity, being "nice," and
consideration of how choices influence relationships.
Stage 4 - Maintaining Social Order
At this stage of moral development, people begin to
consider society as a whole when making judgments.
The focus is on maintaining law and order by following
the rules, doing one’s duty and respecting authority.

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• Level 3. Post conventional Morality

Stage 5 - Social Contract and Individual Rights


At this stage, people begin to account for the differing
values, opinions and beliefs of other people. Rules of
law are important for maintaining a society, but
members of the society should agree upon these
standards.
Stage 6 - Universal Principles
Kolhberg’s final level of moral reasoning is based upon
universal ethical principles and abstract reasoning. At
this stage, people follow these internalized principles
of justice, even if they conflict with laws and rules.
GILLIGAN’S THEORY
• Gilligan observes that Kohlberg's stages were derived
exclusively from interviews with males, and she charges
that the stages reflect a decidedly male orientation.
• For males, advanced moral thought revolves around
rules, rights, and abstract principles. The ideal is formal
justice, in which all parties evaluate one another's claims
in an impartial manner. This conception of morality,
Gilligan argues, fails to capture the distinctly female
voice on moral matters.
GILLIGAN’S THEORY
• Pre-conventional Level
• A person in this stage cares for oneself to ensure survival.
• Though the person’s attitude is selfish, this is the transition phase, where the
person finds the connection between oneself and others .
• Conventional Level
• In this stage, the person feels responsible and shows care towards other people.
• Carol Gilligan believes that this moral thinking can be identified in the role of a
mother and a wife. This sometimes leads to the ignorance of the self.
• Post-conventional Level
• This is the stage, where the principle of care for self as well as others, is
accepted.
• However, a section of people may never reach this level.
CARE-BASED MORALITY

Care-based morality is the kind of thinking found in women.This is


based on the following principles.
• More emphasis is given to inter-connected relationships and
universality.
• Acting justly focuses on avoidance of violence.
• Women with this are usually interested in helping others.
• More common in girls because of their connections to their
mothers.
• Because girls remain connected to their mothers, they are less
inclined to worry about issues of fairness.
JUSTICE-BASED MORALITY
Justice-based morality is the kind of thinking found in men. This is based on
the following principles.
• They view the world as being composed of autonomous individuals
who interact with one another.
• Acting justly means avoiding inequality.
• Individuals with this are usually interested in protecting individuality.
• Thought to be more common among boys because of their need to
differentiate between themselves and their mothers.
• Because they are separated from their mothers, boys become more
concerned with the concept of inequality.
• The Carol Gilligan’s theory can be better understood if explained with
an example.
EXAMPLE OF GILLIGAN’S THEORY

A group of moles give shelter to a porcupine. But they are being


continuously stabbed by the porcupine’s quills. Now, what should
they do?
• The Pre-conventional level of thinking states that to think for the good of
oneself, either the moles or the porcupine only can live there. The other has to
leave the place.
• According to the Conventional level of thinking, which brings a transition,
from self to the good of others and which might even lead to sacrifice, either
the moles or the porcupine has to sacrifice and again this leads to a stage
where only moles or the porcupine can live in the burrow.
• According to the Post-conventional level of thinking, which states that the
good of both the parties has to be considered, both the moles and the
porcupine come to an agreement that both will have separate places in the
same burrow, where they limit to behave themselves and will not cause any
trouble to other. This helps both of them to live in the same place with peace.
KOHLBERG’S THEORY VS. GILLIGAN'S THEORY

• For Kohlberg the mode of reasoning which generates principles


governing right action involves formal rationality alone. Emotions
play at most a remotely secondary role in both the derivation and
motivation for moral action.
• For Gilligan, by contrast, morality necessarily involves an intertwining
of emotion, cognition, and action, not readily separable. Knowing
what to do involves knowing others and being connected in ways
involving both emotion and cognition.
CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY

• Consensus means agreement.


• Controversy means Disagreement.
• The ethics make the engineers
realize the importance of tolerance
among them in case of disagreement
while applying moral autonomy.
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OCCUPATION VS. PROFESSION Technology

Profession can only be applied to certain occupations


which meet the following criteria -

• Knowledge: The work involves exercising sophisticated


skills , theoretical knowledge and judgment and discretion
that is not entirely routine or subject to mechanization.
• Organization: Special societies and organizations
controlled by members of the profession are allowed by
the public to play a major role in setting standards for
admission to the profession.
• Public Good: The occupation serves some important
aspects of public good as indicated in the codes of ethics.
MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA
• Earning bachelor’s degree in engineering at a school approved by the
ABET.
• Performing commonly recognized as what engineers do.
• Being officially registered and licenses as a Professional Engineer(PE).
• Acting in morally responsible ways while practicing engineering.
MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ROLES
• Savior: The representative engineer is a savior who will redeem
society from poverty, inefficiency, waste and drudgery of manual
labor.
• Guardian: The representative engineer knows the directions in which
and pace at which, technology should develop. Accordingly they
should be given positions of high authority based on their expertise in
determining what is in the best interest of the society.
MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ROLES
• Bureaucratic servant: The role of engineer is to be a
servant who receives and translates the directives of
the management into concrete achievements.
• Social servant: The role of engineers’ lies in obedient
service to others but their true master is society.
• Social enabler or catalyst: Ultimate power lies with the
management. Nevertheless, the engineer plays a vital
role beyond mere compliance with orders.
• Game Player: Engineers are neither servants nor
masters. They play by the economic game rules that
happen to be in effect at a given time.

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VIRTUE ETHICS

• Actions are considered right if they support good


character traits (virtues) and wrong if they support
bad character traits (vices)
• Closely tied to personal honor
THEORIES ABOUT VIRTUES
• Aristotle: Virtue and the Golden Mean
• Aristotle, the most influential of all virtue ethicist, defined
the virtues as acquired habits that enable us to engage
effectively in rational activities.
• Moral virtues are tendencies, acquired thro’ habit
formation, to reach a proper balance between extremes
in conduct, emotion, desire and attitude.
• Virtues are tendencies to find “The Golden Mean”
between the extremes of too much and too little.
• E.g. Truthfulness is the mean between revealing all information in violation of
tact and confidentiality and being secretive.
THEORIES ABOUT VIRTUES
Macintyre: Virtues and Practices
Macintyre is a contemporary ethicist who has stimulated
a renewed interest in virtue ethics and applied it to
thinking about professional ethics.
Macintyre begins with the idea of social practices.
Cooperative activities aimed toward achieving public
goods that could not otherwise be achieved, at least not
to the same degree.
These goods are internal to the practices in that they
define what the practices are all about.
They differ from external goods.
 E.g.The primary internal good of medicine is the
promotion of health.
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
• is being morally responsible as a professional.
• is an umbrella virtue that encompasses a wide
variety of more specific virtues that acquire
importance in particular situations
• Many of the virtues can be grouped into four
categories
• Self-direction virtues
• Public-spirited virtues
• Team-work virtues
• Proficiency virtues
INTEGRITY
• is the unity of character on the basis of moral concern, and
especially on the basis of honesty.
• The unity is consistency among our attitudes, emotions and
conduct in relation to justified moral values.
• Integrity makes possible the virtues of self-respect and pride in
one’s work.
HONESTY
• Honesty has two aspects:
• Truthfulness
• Meeting responsibilities concerning truth-telling
• Trustworthiness
• Meeting responsibilities concerning trust.

• List of specific virtues that truthfulness and


trustworthiness imply:
• Honesty in acts
• Honesty in speech
• Honesty in beliefs
SELF RESPECT
is valuing oneself in morally appropriate ways.
takes two forms:
 Recognition self-respect
 Appraisal self-respect

Specific virtues for self respect


 A sense of honor
 Self-control
 Courage
 Good judgment
TYPES OF RESPONSIBILITY
• Moral responsibility
• Obligations-bound to do something.
• Accountability
• Praiseworthy/Blameworthy

• Casual responsibility
• Legal responsibility
THEORIES ABOUT RIGHT ACTION
• Utilitarianism
• Duty Ethics
• Rights Ethics
• Virtue Ethics
UTILITARIANISM JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873)
• Considers a balance of good & bad consequences for everyone
affected (society)
• Actions are good that serve to promote human well-being
• Cost-Benefit analysis is an application
• Consideration of most benefit to the most people outweighs needs of
a few individuals
DUTY ETHICS IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804)

• There are duties that should be performed


(e.g.. Duty to treat others fairly or not to
injure others) regardless of whether these acts
do the most good or not.
RIGHTS ETHICS JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)

• People have fundamental rights (like life,


liberty, & property) that others have a duty to
respect.
TESTING ETHICAL THEORIES
• Five widely used tests for evaluating ethical theories:
• The theory must be clear
• It must be consistent
• Neither the theory nor its defense can rely upon false information
• It must be sufficiently comprehensive to provide guidance in specific situations of
interest to us.
• It must be compatible with our most carefully considered moral convictions about
concrete situations.
SELF-INTEREST AND ETHICAL EGOISM

• is being good and acceptable to oneself.


• It is pursuing what is good for oneself.
• It is very ethical to possess self-interest.
• A view that tries to reduce morality to the
pursuit of self-interest is called ethical egoism.
• “Ethical “ because it is a theory about morality
and “egoism” because it says that the sole duty of
each of us is to maximize his or her own good.
CUSTOMS AND ETHICAL RELATIVISM

• Various culture in our pluralistic society lead to tolerance for


various customs, beliefs and outlooks.
• Ethical pluralism is the view that there may be alternative
perspectives that are reasonable, but no one of which must be
accepted completely by all rational and morally concerned
persons.
• Ethical relativism says that actions are morally right when they
are approved by law or custom; they are wrong when they
violate laws or customs.
• Moral rationalism is the view that moral judgments should be
made in relation to factors that may vary from case to case.
RELIGION

• Religions have played major roles in shaping moral views


and moral values.
• Each religion lays stress on certain high moral standards.
• Hinduism holds polytheistic view and virtues of devotion and
surrender to high order.
• Christianity believes in one deity and emphasizes on virtues of
love, faith and hope.
• Islam on one deity and adherence to ishan and prayer.

• But many religious sects have adopted poor moral


standards.
• People are killed in the name of religion.
DIVINE COMMAND ETHICS

• As per this principle, the right action is


defined by the commands by God.
• It implies that to be moral, a person should
believe in god and an action is right only if it is
commanded by God.
USES OF ETHICAL THEORIES

• Ethical theories are useful :


• for justifying moral obligations.
• for resolving moral dilemmas.
• in relating professional and ordinary
morality.

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