Professional Ethics Class Notes Set 1 and 2

7/29/2019 Professional Ethics Class Notes Set 1 and 2

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PROFESSIONAL ETHICS & HUMAN VALUES

2 MARKS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

UNIT - I

1. What are human values?

Values decide the standard of behavior. Some universally

accepted values are freedom jusce and equality.Other principles of values are love, care, honesty,

integrity, self-respect.

2. What are ethical values?

Trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring is

ethical values

3. Disnguish values from ethics and culture.

Values are mainly related to individuals and since they

are related to jusce, they remain the same for

everyone. E.g. truth, honesty, empathy, self-respect.

Values do not change from individual to individual. Ethics

is common to a group of individuals; the group may be

religious or professional. Ethics is mostly based on some

code or law and judgment of any acon is based on

code of conduct or law. Ethics change from individual to

individual Culture commonly refers to conduct of a

group. E.g. system of worship, marriage it may dier

from society to society, naon to naon or religion to

religion.

4. What is integrity?

Integrity is the unity of character based on moral values.

Consistency in atudes, emoons and conduct in

relaons to morally jused acons and values are also

the part of integrity of individual. It implies honesty,

trustworthiness.

5. Dene work ethics

By ones work one cannot harm others. Any worker

cannot escape accountability. Worker has the moral

responsibility to see that no other persons right, private

or freedom is impaired or transgressed.

6. What is service learning?

Service learning tells that one has moral responsibility to

increase the desirable eects and to decrease the

harmful eects. Any service should increase the

desirable result.

7. Menon some civic virtues?

Good cizen demand civic virtue. It is the principle of not

harming the surroundings .it also includes living

peacefully, respect for others, protecng the

environment and being normally and ethically good.

8. Write short notes on caring and sharing.

Caring is the essence of moral life. Caring involves

feelings, relaonship, contends with other persons and

protecng others and causing least damage to others.

Sharing means sharing of feelings, ideas thoughts,

resources and prots. Sharing is always mutually

benecial. Sharing morally acceptable feelings, resources

and materials is a value.

9. Write notes on honesty.

Any human being should imbibe honesty-honesty in acts,

honesty in speech and honesty in beliefs. Honesty is

the fundamental virtue in human relaonship even

though in may be dicult to follow some mes.

10. What is courage as a value?

Courage implies self-respect and governs confrontaons

with danger and risk. It is not excessive rashes or

cowardice, but it is the middle ground. Taking calculated

risks and boldness in facing crises are the hallmarks of

courage as a human value. It denes the mental

makeup of an individual in taking bold decisions even

under adverse situaons.

11. Dene co-operaon.

Co-operaon means extending help to others, for a good

cause. Co-operaon may be through an idea, a

suggeson, an assistance or physical work which extends

to others for common benet.

12. Dene empathy.

Empathy means pung self in a posion of someone

else and thinking as the later and reasoning suitable

acon.

13. Dene spirituality.

Spirituality raises a man above the materialisc world

into a realm where he seeks peace and real happiness.

14. Dene Integrity?

Integrity is the bridge between responsibility in private

and professional life.

15. Dene Compromise?

In a negave sense it means to undetermined integrity

by violang ones fundamental moral principles. In a

posive sense, however, it means to sele d ierences by

mutual concessions or to reconcile conicts through

adjustments in atude and conduct.

16. Give the two aspects of Honesty?

Truthfulness meeng responsibilies concerning truth-

telling. Trustworthiness Meeng responsibilies

concerning trust.

17. Dierenate Self-respect and Self-esteem?

Self-respect: It is a moral concept; refers to the virtue

properly valuing oneself. Self-esteem: It is a

psychological concept; means having a posive atude

toward oneself, even if the atude is excessive or

otherwise unwarranted.


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The Story of a Carpenter

An elderly carpenter was ready to rere. He told his

employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-

building business and live a more leisurely life with his

wife enjoying his extended family.

He would miss his paycheck, but he needed to rere.

They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his

good worker go and asked if he could bui ld just one

more house as a personal favor.

The carpenter said yes, but in me it was easy to see that

his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy

workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an

unfortunate way to end his career.

When the carpenter nished his work and the bui lder

came to inspect the house, the contractor handed over

the house key to the carpenter. This is your house, he

said, It is my parng gi to you.

What a shock! What a Shame! If only he had known he

was building his own house, he would have done it all so

dierently. Now he had to live in the home he built none

too well.

(Modied from LIVING WITH HONOUR by SHIV KHERA)

- Do we nd ourselves in similar situaons as thecarpenter?

- Moving through our work hours fast paced, driven toget the job done, without much thought to moral

values.

- How do we regain our focus as individuals andorganizaons?

- This is the challenge for the employee and theemployer.

- Ethics are fundamental standards of conduct bywhich we work as a professional.

VALUES

Values are individual in nature.

Values are comprised of personal concepts ofresponsibility, entlement and respect.

Values are shaped by personal experience, maychange over the span of a lifeme and may be

inuenced by lessons learned.

Values may vary according to an individuals cultural,ethnic and/or faith based background. Never

change your core values.

In spite of all the change around you, decide uponwhat you will never change: your core values.

Take your me to decide what they are but once youdo, do not compromise on them for any reason.

Integrity is one such value.

MORALS

Morals are guiding principles that every cizenshould hold.

Morals are foundaonal concepts dened on bothan individual and societal level.

At the most basic level, morals are the knowledge ofthe dierence between right and wrong.

PERSONAL ETHICS

Simply put, all individuals are morally autonomousbeings with the power and right to choose their

values, but it does not follow that all choices and all

value systems have an equal claim to be called

ethical.

Acons and beliefs inconsistent with the Six Pillars ofCharacter -trustworthiness, respect, responsibility,

fairness, caring and cizenship - are simply not

ethical.

PERSONAL ETHICS - everyday examples

Soware piracy

Expense account padding

Copying of homework or tests

Income taxes

Borrowing nuts and bolts, oce supplies from

employer

Copying of Videos or CDs

Plagiarism

Using the copy machine at work

RELIGION AND ETHICS

The Golden Rule is a basic tenet in almost all

religions: Chrisan, Hindu, Jewish, Confucian, Buddhist,

Muslim.

Do unto others as you would have others do unto

you.

Treat others as you would like them to treat you

(Chrisan).

Hurt not others with that which pains you (Buddhist)

What is hateful to yourself do not do to your fellow

men (Judaism)

No man is a true believer unless he desires for his

brother that which he desires for himself (Islam)

MORALITY AND ETHICS

Concerns the goodness of voluntary human conductthat aects the self or other living things

Morality (Lan mores) usually refers to any aspect ofhuman acon

Ethics (Greek ethos) commonly refers only toprofessional behavior

Ethics consist of the applicaon of fundamentalmoral principles and reect our dedicaon to fair

treatment of each other, and of society as a whole.

An individuals own values can result in acceptanceor rejecon of society s ethical standards because

even thoughully developed ethical rules can

conict with individual values.

ASPECTS OF ETHICS

There are two aspects to ethics:


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1. The rst involves the ability to discern right fromwrong, good from evil and propriety from

impropriety.

2. The second involves the commitment to dowhat is right, good and proper.

Ethics entails acon.

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!

UNIT - II

1. Dene Ethics?

* Study of right or wrong. * Good and evil. *

Obligaons & rights. * Jusce. * Social & Polical

deals.

2. Dene Engineering Ethics?

* Study of the moral issues and decisions confronng

individuals and organizaons engaged in engineering /

profession.

* Study of related quesons about the moral ideals,

character, policies and relaonships of people and

corporaons involved in technological acvity.

* Moral standards / values and system of morals.

3. What is the need to study Ethics?

* To responsibly confront moral issues raised by

technological acvity.

* To recognize and resolve moral dilemma.

* To achieve moral autonomy.

4. Dierenate Moral and Ethics?

MORAL:

Refers only to personal behavior.

Refers to any aspect of human acon.

Social convenons about right or wrong

conduct.

ETHICS:

Involves dening, analyzing, evaluang and

resolving moral problems and developing

moral criteria to guide human behavior.

Crical reecon on what one does and why

one does it.

Refers only to professional behavior.

5. What is the method used to solve an Ethical problem?

Recognizing a problem or its need. Gathering informaon and dening the problem

to be solved or goal to be achieved.

Generang alternave soluons or methods toachieve the goal.

Evaluate benets and costs of alternatesoluons.

Decision making & opmizaon. Implemenng the best soluon.

6. What are the Senses of Engineering Ethics?

O An acvity and area of inqu iry.

O Ethical problems, issues and controversies.

O Parcular set of beliefs, atudes and habits.

O Morally correct.

7. Dierenate Micro-ethics and Macro-ethics?

Micro-ethics: Deals about some typical and everydayproblems which play an important role in the eld

of engineering and in t he profession of an engineer.

Macro-ethics: Deals with all the societal problemswhich are unknown and suddenly burst out on a

regional or naonal level.

8. What are the three types of Inquiry?

Normave

Inquiry Based on values.

Conceptual

Inquiry Based on meaning.

Factual

Inquiry Based in facts.

9. What are the sorts of complexity and murkiness that

may be involved in moral situaons?

Vagueness

Conicng reasons

Disagreement

10. What are the steps in confronng Moral Dilemmas?

Idenfy the relevant moral factors and reasons. Gather all available facts that are pernent to the

moral factors involved.

Rank the moral consideraons in order ofimportance as they apply to the situaon.

Consider alternave courses of acons as ways ofresolving dilemma, tracing the full implicaons of

each. Get suggesons and alternave perspecves on the

dilemma.

By weighing all the relevant moral factors andreasons in light of the facts, produce a reasoned

judgment.

11. Dene Moral Autonomy?

Self-determining Independent Personal Involvement Exercised based on the moral concern for other

people and recognion of good moral reasons

12. Give the importance of Lawrence Kohlbergs and

Carol Gilligans theory?

Kohlberg gives greater emphasis to recognizingrights and abstract universal rules.


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Gilligan stresses the importance of maintainingpersonal relaonships based on mutual caring.

13. Give the need for Authority?

Authority provides the framework in which learning can

take place.

14. What are the criteria required for a Profession?

O Knowledge

O Organizaon

O Public Good

15. Give the general criteria to become a Professional

engineer?

Aaining standards of achievement in educaon, jobperformance or relavity in engineering that

disnguish engineers from engineering technicians

and technologists.

Accepng as part of their professional obligaons asleast the most basic moral responsibilies to the

public as well as to their employers, clients,

colleagues and subordinates.

16. Dene Integrity?

Integrity is the bridge between responsibility in private

and professional life.

17. Dene Compromise?

In a negave sense it means to undeterminedintegrity by violang ones fundamental moral

principles.

In a posive sense, however, it means to seledierences by mutual concessions or to reconcile

conicts through adjustments in atude and

conduct.

18. Give the two aspects of Honesty?

O Truthfulness meeng responsibilies

concerning truth-telling.

O Trustworthiness Meeng responsibilies

concerning trust.

19. Dierenate Self-respect and Self-esteem?

Self-respect: It is a moral concept; refers to thevirtue properly valuing oneself.

Self-esteem: It is a psychological concept; meanshaving a posive atude toward oneself, even if the

atude is excessive or otherwise unwarranted.

20. What are the two forms of Self-respect?

a. Recognion self-respect

b. Appraisal self-respect

21. What are the senses of Responsibility?

A. a virtue

B. obligaons

C. general moral capacies of people

D. liabilies and accountability for acons

E. blameworthiness or praiseworthiness

22. When will you tell an Act as an involuntary one?

* Act done in ignorance

* Act performed under compulsion

23. What are the types of Theories about Morality?

O Virtue ethics Virtues and vices

O Ulitarianism Most good for the most people

O Duty ethics Dues to respect people

O Rights ethics Human rights

24. Dierenate Hypothecal imperaves and Moral

imperaves?

Hypothecal imperaves are based on some condions

whereas Moral imperaves wont based on some

condion.

25. State Rawls principles?

(1) Each person is entled to the most extensive amount

of liberty compable with an

Equal amount for others.

(2) Dierences in social power and economic benets

are jused only when they are likely to benet

everyone, including members of the most disadvantaged

groups.

26. Give the various tests required to evaluate the Ethical

Theories?

O Theory must be clear, and formulated with concepts

that are coherent and applicable.

O It must be internally consistent in that none of its

tenets contradicts any other.

O Neither the theory nor its defense can rely upon false

informaon.

O It must be suciently comprehensive to provide

guidance in specic situaons of interests to us.

O It must be compable with our most carefully

considered moral convicons about concrete situaons.

27. Give the drawbacks of Ulitarianism?

O Somemes what is best for the community as a whole

is bad for certain individuals in the community.

O It is oen impossible to know in advance which

decision will lead to the most good.

28. Give the drawback of Duty Ethics?

Duty ethics does not always lead to a soluon which

maximizes the public good.

29. Give the drawbacks of Rights Ethics?

How do we priorize the rights of dierent individuals? It oen promotes the rights of individuals at the

expense of large groups / society.

30. Dierenate Ethical Relavism and Ethical Egoism?

Ethical egoism the view that right acon consist inproducing ones own good.


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Ethical relavism the view that right acon ismerely what the law and customs of ones society

require.

31. Dene Ethical Pluralism?

Ethical pluralism is the view that there may be

alternave moral perspecves that are reasonable, but

no one of which must be accepted completely by all

raonal and morally concerned persons.

32. Dene Religion?

A religion is any set of arcles of faith together withthe observances, atudes,

Obligaons and feelings ed up therewith, which, inso far as it is inuenal in a person, tends to perform

two funcons, one social and the other personal.

33. Give the uses of Ethical Theories?

O In understanding moral dilemmas

O Jusfying professional obligaons and ideals

O Relang ordinary and professional morality

34. What are personal ethics and business ethics?

Personal ethics deals with how we treat others inour day- to- day lives.

Business ethics deals with the desired norms ofbehavior that pertain to commercial transacons.

35. What do you mean by normave ethics?

Normave ethics deals with the professional codes of

ethics that specify role norms or ob ligaons that

professions aempt to enforce. It is the

recommendaons of standards and guidelines for

morally right or good behavior.

36. What is descripve ethics or non-normave ethics?

Descripve ethics deals with the factual invesgaon of

moral behavior and beliefs i.e.., the study not of what

people ought to do but how they reason and how they

act.

37. Menon some universally accepted ethical principles.

Honesty

Integrity

Fullling commitments

Abiding by agreements in both leer and spirit

Willing to admit mistakes

Being caring and compassionate

Having respect for human dignity

38. What do you mean by ethical subjecvism?

Ethical subjecvism argues that what is ethically right or

wrong for the individual depends on the ethical

principles he/she has chosen. In other words, for people

who subscribe to ethical subjecvism what is ethically

right or wrong is enrely a personnel maer?

39. What are the steps in confronng moral dilemmas?

Idenfy the relevant moral factors and reasons. Gather all available facts that are pernent to the


Rank the moral consideraons in order ofimportance as they apply to the situaon.

Consider alternave course of acon as ways ofresolving the dilemma, tracing the full implicaons

of each.

Talk with the colleagues seeking their suggesonsand alternave perspecves on the di lemma.

Arrive at a carefully reasoned judgment by weighingall the relevant factors and reasons in light of the

facts.

40. What is tacit-ethic and Meta -ethics?

Tacit ethic deals with the unsaid or unspoken rule of

pracce.

Meta-ethics deals with theories about ethics.

41. What is moral autonomy?

Moral autonomy can be viewed as the skill and habit of

thinking raonally about ethical issues on the basis of

moral concern.

42. What do you mean by a sociopath?

Sociopath lack a sense of moral concern and guilt, and

can never be morally autonomous no maer how

independent their intellectual reasoning about ethics

maybe.

43. What are the aributes to a profession?

The aributes to a profession are:

Knowledge Organizaon Public good

44. What are the two models of a professional society?

The two models of a professional society are:

Social contract model, Business model

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Technology can have no legimacy unless it inicts 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

potenal for inicng harm on a society or its members?

Engineers have an ethical and social responsibility to

themselves, their clients and society.

Praccally (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 confronng

individuals and organizaons involved in engineering and

The study of related quesons about moral ideals,

character, policies and relaonships of people and

organizaons involved in technological acvity.


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TRAINING IN PREVENTIVE ETHICS

Smulang the moral imaginaon

Recognizing ethical issues

Developing analycal skills

Elicing a sense of responsibility

Tolerang disagreement and ambiguity

IMPEDIMENTS TO RESPONSIBILITY

Self-interest.

Fear.

Self-decepon.

Ignorance.

Egocentric tendencies.

Microscopic vision.

Groupthink.

QUESTIONABLE ENGINEERING PRACTICES

Trimming smoothing of irregularies to make data

look extremely accurate and precise

Cooking retaining only those results that t the

theory and discarding others.

Forging invenng some or all o f the research data

Plagiarism misappropriang intellectual property.

Conicts of interest (such as accepng gis.)

Actual

Potenal

Apparent

CLEARLY WRONG ENGINEERING PRACTICES

Lying

Deliberate decepon

Withholding informaon

Failing to adequately promote the disseminaon of

informaon

Failure to seek out the truth

Revealing condenal or proprietary informaon

Allowing ones judgment to be corrupted.

SENSES OF EXPRESSION OF ENGG. ETHICS

Ethics is an acvity and area of inquiry. It is theacvity of understanding moral values, resolving

moral issues and the area of study resulng from

that acvity.

When we speak of ethical problems, issues andcontroversies, we mean to disnguish them from

non-moral problems.

Ethics is used to refer to the parcular set of beliefs,atudes and habits that a person or group displays

concerning moralies.

Ethics and its grammacal variants can be used assynonyms for morally correct.

VARIETIES or APPROACHES OF MORAL ISSUES

MICRO-ETHICS emphasizes typically everydayproblems that can take on signicant

proporons in an engineers life or enre

engineering oce.

MACRO-ETHICS addresses societal problemsthat are oen shunted aside and are not

addressed unl they unexpectedly resurface on

a regional or naonal scale.

MORAL PROBLEMS IN ENGINEERING - SOME EXAMPLES

4.1. An inspector discovered faulty construcon

equipment and applied a violaon tag, prevenng its

use. The supervisor, a construcon manager viewed the

case as a minor abrasion of the safety regulaons and

ordered the removal of the tag to speed up the project.

When the inspector objected to this, he was threatened

with disciplinary acon.

4.2. An electric ulity 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

malfunconing. The ulity 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 populaon. When enquired

about their omission, they said it was not their

responsibility.

4.3. A chemical plant dumped wastes in a landll.

Hazardous substances found their way into the

underground water table. The plants engineers were

aware of the situaon but did not change the method of

disposal because their competors did it the same cheap

way, and no law explicitly forbade the pracce.

4.4. Electronics Company ABC geared up for producon

of its own version of a popular new item. The product

was not yet ready for sale, but even so, pictures and

impressive specicaons appeared in adversements.

Prospecve customers were led to believe that it was

available o the shelf and were drawn away from

compeng lines.

TYPES OF INQUIRIES

1. NORMATIVE INQUIRY

These are about what ought to be and what is good.

These quesons idenfy and also jusfy the morally

desirable norms or standards.

Some of the quesons are:

A. How far engineers are obligated to protect public

safety in given situaons?

B. When should engineers start whistle blowing ondangerous pracces 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 jused in interfering on such issues and

why?


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2. CONCEPTUAL INQUIRY:

These quesons should lead to claricaons 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?

3. FACTUAL (DESCRIPTIVE) INQUIRIES

These are inquiries used to uncover informaon using

scienc techniques. These inquiries get to informaon

about business realies, history of engineering

profession, procedures used in assessment of risks and

engineers psychology.

Why study ENGINEERING ETHICS

ENGINEERING ETHICS is a means to increase the ability

of concerned engineers, managers, cizens and others to

responsibly confront moral issues raised by technological

acvies.

MORAL DILEMMMA

There are three types of complexies.

VAGUENESS: This complexity arises due to the factthat it is not clear to individuals as to which moral

consideraons or principles apply to their situaon.

CONFLICTING REASONS: Even when it is perfectlyclear as to which moral principle is applicable to

ones situaon, there could develop a situaon

where in two or more clearly applicable moral

principles come into conict.

DISAGREEMENT: Individuals and groups maydisagree how to interpret, apply and balance moral

reasons in parcular situaons.

Steps in confronng MORAL DILEMMAS:

i) Idenfy the relevant moral factors and reasons.

ii) Gather all available facts that are pernent to the


iii) Rank the moral consideraons in the order of their

importance as they apply to the situaon.

iv) Consider alternave course of acon, tracing the full

implicaons of each, as ways of solving dilemma.

v) Talk with colleagues, seeking the suggesons and

perspecves of the dilemma.

vi) Arrive at a carefully reasoned judgment by weighing

all the relevant moral factors and reasons in light of facts.

All the above steps are disnct, even though they are

interrelated and can oen be taken jointly

MORAL AUTONOMY

This is viewed as the skill and habit of thinking

raonally about ethical issues on the basis of moral

concerns independently or by self-determinaon.

Autonomous individuals think for themselves and do

not assume that customs are always right.

They seek to reason and live by general principles.

Their movaon is to do what is morally reasonable for

its own sake, maintaining integrity, self-respect, and

respect for others.

One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly,

lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I

submit that an individual who breaks a law that

conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the

penalty is in reality expressing the highest respect for

the law.Rev. Marn Luther King, Jr. in Leer from a

Birmingham Jail, 1963.

A person becomes morally autonomous by improvingvarious praccal skills listed below;

i) Prociency is recognizing moral problems and issues in

engineering.

ii) Skill in comprehending, clarifying and crically

assessing arguments on opposing sides of moral issues.

iii) The ability to form consistent and comprehensive

viewpoints based upon consideraon of relevant facts.

iv) Awareness of alternate responses to issues and

creave soluons for praccal dicules.

v) Sensivity to genuine dicules and subtlees

vi) Increased precision in the use of a common ethical

language necessary to express and also defend ones

views adequately.

vii) Appreciaon of possibilies of using raonal dialogue

in resolving moral conicts and the need for tolerance of

dierences in perspecve among orally reasonable

people.

viii) A sense of importance of integrang ones

professional life and personal convicons i.e. maintaining

ones moral integrity.

KOHLBERGS THEORY-STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT

Pre-convenonal Level

Whatever benets oneself or avoids punishment. This is

the level of development of all young children. -Avoid

punishment & Gain Reward

Convenonal Level

Uncrical acceptance of ones family, group or society

are accepted as nal standard of morality. Most adults

do not mature beyond this stage.

1. Gain Approval & Avoid Disapproval & 2. Duty & Guilt

Post-convenonal Level

Movaon to do what is morally reasonable for its own

sake, rather than solely from ulterior moves, with also a

desire to maintain their moral integrity, self-respect and

the respect of other autonomous individuals. They are

Morally autonomous people.

1. Agreed upon rights & 2. Personal moral standards

GILLIGANS THEORYPre-convenonal Level


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This is the same as Kohlbergs rst level in that the

person is preoccupied with self-centered reasoning,

caring for the needs and desires of self.

Convenonal

Here the thinking is opposite in that, one is preoccupied

with not hurng others and a willingness to sacrice

ones own interests in order to help or nurture others (or

retain friendship).

Post-convenonal Level

Achieved through context-oriented reasoning, rather

than by applying abstract rules ranked in a hierarchy of

importance. Here the individual becomes able to strike a

reasoned balance between caring about other people

and pursuing ones own self-interest while exercising

ones rights.

Dierences between the TWO THEORIES

KOHLBERG GILLIGAN

Ethics of rules and rights Ethics of care

Studies based on well

educated, white males

only - tending male bias.

Studies included females

and colored People too.

Applicaon of abstract

rules ranked in the order of

importance

Applicaon of context-

oriented reasoning

Studies were hypothesized

for both

the genders even though

the study was conducted

mostly on males

Study was conducted on

both genders and it was

found, men based their

reasoning on jusce and

women based theirs on

care

HEINZS DILEMMA

The famous example used by Kohlberg was called

Heinzs dilemma. A woman living in Europe would die

of cancer unless she was given an expensive drug. Her

husband, Heinz, could not aord it. But the local

pharmacist, who had invented the drug at only one tenth

of the sale price refused to sell it to Heinz who could only

raise half the required money from borrowings.

Desperaon drives Heinz to break into the pharmacy and

steal the drug to save his wife. When respondents were

asked whether and why Heinz should or should not steal

a drug to save his wife from a li fe-threatening illness.

The responses of the individuals were compared with a

prototypical response of individuals at parcular stages

of moral reasoning.

Kohlberg noted that irrespecve of the level of the

individual the response could be same, but the reasoning

could be dierent. For example, if a child reasoning at a

preconvenonal level might say that it is not right to

steal because it is against law and someone might see

you.

At a convenonal level, an individual might argue that

it is not right to steal because it is against law and laws

are necessary for society to funcon.

At a postconvenonal level, one may argue that

stealing is wrong because is against law and it is immoral.

CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY

CONTROVERSY:

All individuals will not arrive at same verdict during

their exercising their moral autonomy.

Aristotle noted long ago that morality is not as precise

and clear-cut as arithmec.

Aim of teaching engg. ethics is not to get unanimous

conformity of outlook by indoctrinaon, authoritarian

and dogmac teaching, hypnosm or any other

technique but to improve promoon of tolerance in the

exercise of moral autonomy. CONSENSUS:

The conductor of a music orchestra has authority over

the musicians and his authority is respected by them by

consensus as otherwise the music performance will

suer. Hence the authority and autonomy are

compable.

On the other hand, tension arises between the needs for

autonomy and the need for concerns about authority.

The dierence between the two should be discussed

openly to resolve the issue to the common good.

PROFESSIONS AND PROFESSIONALISM

Engineers normally imagine that they are servants to

organizaons rather than a public guardian.

Responsibility to the public is essenal for a professional.

Who is a professional?

Obviously a member of a profession.

What is a profession?

JOB or OCCUPATION that meets the following criteria

from which a person earns his living.

Knowledge Exercise of skills, knowledge, judgment and

discreon requiring extensive formal criteria.

Organizaon - special bodies by members of the

profession to set standard codes of ethics,

Public good-The occupaon serves some important

public good indicated by a code of ethics.

Who is a professional engineer?


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Has a bachelors degree in engineering from an

accredited school

Performs engineering work

Is a registered and licensed Professional Engineer

Acts in a morally responsible way while praccing

engineering

Diering views on Professionals

Only consulng engineers who are basically

independent and have freedom from coercion can be

called as professionals. -Robert L.Whitelaw

Professionals have to meet the expectaons of clients

and employers. Professional restraints are to be imposed

by only laws and government regulaons and not by

personal conscience. -Samuel Florman

Engineers are professionals when;

1) They aain standards of achievement in educaon,job performance or creavity in engineering and

2) Accept the most basic moral responsibilies to thepublic as well as employers, clients, colleagues and

subordinates. -Mike Marn & Roland Schinzinger

MOTIVES FOR PROFESSIONALISM

A desire for interesng and challenging work and thepleasure in the act of changing the world.

The joy of creave eorts. Where a scienstsinterest is in discovering new technology, engineers

interest is derived from creavely solving praccal

problems.

The engineer shares the sciensts job inunderstanding the laws and riddles of the universe.

The sheer magnitude of the nature oceans, rivers,mountains and prairies leads engineers to build

engineering marvels like ships, bridges, tunnels, etc.,

which appeal to human passion.

The pleasure of being in the presence of machinesgenerang a comforng and absorbing sense of a

manageable, controlled and ordered world.

Strong sense of helping, of direcng eorts towardseasing the lot of ones fellows.

The main pleasure of the engineer will always be tocontribute to the well-being of his fellow-men.

MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS

1. SAVIOR: The representave engineer is a savior who

will redeem society from poverty, ineciency, waste and

the drudgery of manual labour.

2. GUARDIAN: Engineers know, the direcons in which

and pace at which, technology should develop.

3. BUREAUCRATIC SERVANT: The engineer as the loyal

organizaon person uses special skills to solve problems.

4. SOCIAL SERVANT: Engineers, in co-operaon with

management, have the task of receiving societys

direcves and sasfying society s desires.

5. SOCIAL ENABLER AND CATALYST: Engineers play a vital

role beyond mere compliance with orders. They help

management and society understand their own needs

and to make informed decisions.

6. GAME PLAYER: Engineers are neither servants nor

masters of anyone. They play by the economic game

rules that happen to be in eect at a given me.

TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORIES

S.NO - TYPES - BASED ON

1 Virtue ethics - Virtues and vices

2 Ulitarianism - Most good for most people

3 Duty ethics - Dues to respect persons

4 Rights ethics - Human Rights

VIRTUE ETHICS

The unexamined life is not worth living.

(Socrates, 470-399 B.C.)

The happy life is thought to be virtuous; now a

virtuous life requires exeron and does not consist in

amusement. (Aristotle, 384-322 B.C.)

The Four Main Virtues Prudence (mind): to think about a moral problem

clearly and completely

Temperance (emoons): control aracon to posive

emoons

Fortude (emoons): control aversion for negave

emoons

Jusce (will): choose according to truth and fairness.

Virtue Ethics

Focuses on the type of person we should strive to be

Acons which reect good character traits (virtues) are

inherently right

Acons which reect bad character traits (vices) are

inherently wrong

Virtue ethics are ed more to the individual behavior

than to that of an organizaon (e.g. business,

government)

ARISTOTLE says that moral virtues are tendencies,

acquired through habit formaon, to reach a proper

balance between extremes in conduct, emoon, desire

and atude i.e. virtues are tendencies to nd the Golden

Mean between the extremes of too much and too lile.

Some of the virtues are dened using examples here:

Virtue Too much Too less

Courage Foolhardiness Cowardice

Truthfulness Revealing all in

violaon of tact and

condenality

Being secreve

or lacking in

candor

Generosity Wasng ones

resources

Being miserly

Friendliness Being annoyingly

eusive

Sulky or surly

(Golden mean between extremes)


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PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Being morally responsible as a professional.

Most basic and comprehensive professional virtue.

Creaon of useful and safe technological products while

respecng the autonomy of clients and public, especially

in maers of risk taking.

This encompasses a wide variety of the more specic

virtues grouped as follows:

1. SELF DIRECTION VIRTUES:

Fundamental virtues in exercising our moral autonomy

and responsibility. e.g. self-understanding, humility, good

moral judgment, courage, self-discipline, perseverance,

commitments, self-respect and dignity

2. PUBLIC SPIRITED VIRTUES:

Focusing on the good of the clients and public aected

by the engineers work by not directly and intenonally

harming others i.e. non-malecence. Benecence, sense

of community, generosity are other virtues falling in this

category.

3. TEAMWORK VIRTUES:

Enables professionals to work successfully with others.

E.g. collegiality, cooperaveness, the ability to

communicate, respect for authority, loyalty to employers

and leadership qualies.

4. PROFICIENCY VIRTUES:

Mastery of ones cra that characterize good engineering

pracce e.g. competence, diligence, creavity, self-

renewal through connuous educaon.

MORAL INTEGRITY

Moral 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 atudes, emoons

and conduct in relaon to jused moral values.

SELF-RESPECT

Valuing oneself in morally appropriate ways. Integral to nding meaning in ones life and work A pre-requisite for pursuing other moral ideals and

virtues.

Self-respect is a moral concept of properly valuingoneself but self-esteem is a psychological concept of

posive atude towards oneself.

Self-respect takes two forms.

1. Recognion self-respect is properly valuing

oneself because of ones inherent moral worth,

the same worth that every other human being

has.

2. Appraisal self-respect is properly valuing

ourselves according to how well we meet moral

standards and our personal ideals.

VARIOUS SENSES OF RESPONSIBILITY

Responsibility ascribed by i) virtue, ii) obligaons, iii)

general moral capacies of people, iv) liabilies and

accountability for acons and v) blameworthiness or

praiseworthiness.1. By virtue: A person is said to be a responsible person

when we ascribe a moral virtue to the person. We expect

that the person is regularly concerned to do the right

thing, is conscienous and diligent in meeng

obligaons. In this sense, professional responsibility is

the central virtue of engineers.

2. By obligaon: Moral responsibilies can be thought of

as obligaons or dues to perform morally right acts.

3. By general moral capacity: When we view a person as

a whole rather than one with respect to a specic area,

we are actually thinking about the acve capacity of the

person for knowing how to act in morally appropriate

ways e.g. the capacity of children grow as they mature

and learn.

4. By accountability: Responsibility also means being

accountable, answerable or liable to meet parcular

obligaons. The virtue of professional responsibility

implies a willingness to be accountable for ones conduct.

5. By being blameworthy: When accountability for a

wrongdoing is at issue, responsible becomes a synonym

for blameworthy. When right conduct is the issue, the

context is praiseworthiness.

CAUSAL AND LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Causal Responsibility: consists simply in being a cause of

some event. E.g. lightning as being responsible for a

house catching re.

Legal Responsibility: consists simply in being a cause for

harm that was so unlikely and also unforeseeable that no

moral responsibility is involved.

UTILITARIANISM

That which produces the maximum benet for thegreatest number of people (e.g. Democracy)

Tries to achieve a balance between the good and bad

consequences of an acon

Tries to maximize the well-being of society and

emphasizes what will provide the most benets to the

largest group of people

This method is fundamental to many types of

engineering analysis, including risk-benet analysis and

cost-benet analysis

Drawbacks:

Somemes what is best for the community as awhole is bad for certain individuals in the

community

It is oen impossible to know in advance whichdecision will lead to the most good

Organizing Principles to Resolving Ethical Issues


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Ulitarian thinking

A standard that promotes those individual acons or

rules that produce the greatest total amount of ulity to

those aected.

A code that enjoins engineers to promote the safety,

health, and welfare of the public.

What is ulity, though? Happiness?

Preference ulitarianism

promote those condions that allow each individual to

pursue happiness as he or she conceives it.

Two condions necessary for this: freedom and well-

being.

Praccally, for engineers, this advocates cost/benet

analyses.

Problems with Ulitarianism

Dicult to quanfy benets for ALL those aected.

Greatest good dicult to apply to an al l-inclusive

populaon.

Someone gets shaed approach jusesperpetrang injusce on individuals, i.e., someone gets

le out.

Three approaches:

1. Cost/benet quanable approach. Maximize

posive ulies (benets) against negave ulies

(costs).

2. Act ulitarian Will the course of acon produce

more good than any alternave course of acon that I

could take?

3. Rule ulitarian Would ulity be maximized if

everyone did the same thing in the same circumstances?

Adopon of commonly accepted rules.

1. COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS:

Assess the available opons Assess the costs and benets of each opon for the

enre audience aected

Make the decision that is likely to result in thegreatest benet relave to cost.

2. ACT-UTILITARIANISM:

(Professed by John Stuart Mills)

Focuses on individual acons, rather than general rules.

An act is right if it is likely to produce the most good for

the most people involved in the parcular situaon.

Rules may be broken whenever doing so will produce the

most good in a specic situaon.

Happiness is the only intrinsic good and all others are

instrumental goods that serve as the means of

happiness.

3. RULE-UTILITARIANISM:

(Professed by Richard Brandt)

This regards moral values as primary.

We should follow the rules and avoid bribes, even when

those acts do not have the best consequences in a

parcular situaon, because the general pracce of

following rules and not bribing produce the most overall

good

Rules should be considered in sets called moral codes.

A moral code is jused when followed, would maximize

the public good more than alternave codes would.

DUTY ETHICS (Immanuel Kants view)

Contends that certain acts (or dues) should be

performed because they are inherently ethical such as:

be honest, keep promises, do not inict suerings on other people, be fair, make reparaon when you have been unfair, how gratude for kindness extended by others seek to improve own intelligence and character,

develop ones talents,

dont commit suicide.Dues, rather than good consequences, is fundamental.

Individuals who recognize their ethical dues will choose

ethically correct moral acons

These dues should meet Kants 3 condions i.e.

1. It should express respect for persons,

People deserve respect because they have capacityto be autonomous and for exercising goodwill.

Goodwill is the conscienous and honest eort to dowhat is right according to universal principles of

dues.

Moral moves and intenons play a prominent rolein duty ethics rather than ulitarianism.

2. It is a universal principle

Dues are binding on us only if they are applicable to

everyone. They must be universalisable.

3. It expresses command for autonomous moral agents.

Dues prescribe certain acons categorically, without

qualicaons or condions aached. Valid principles of

dues are Categorical Imperaves. They contrast with

non-moral commands called Hypothecal Imperaves

which are condional.

The above RESPECT for PERSONS

Drawback of Kants duty ethics: It has failed to be

sensive to how principles of duty can conict with each

other thereby creang Moral dilemmas.

Rawls Development on Kants Duty Ethics

Rawls argues that all raonal people would agree to

abide by two basic moral principles:

1. Each person is entled to the most extensive amount

of liberty compable with an equal amount for others

and


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2. Dierences in social power and economic benets are

jused only when they are likely to benet everyone,

including members of most disadvantaged groups.

RIGHTS ETHICS (JOHN LOCKE 1632-1704)

Everyone has inherent moral rights

Everyone has rights that arise from EXISTING (i.e. Right

to Life, maximum individual Liberty, and human Dignity

are Fundamental Rights).

Other rights arise as a Consequence.

Dues arise because people have rights, not vice versa.

Any act that violates an individuals moral rights is

ethically unacceptable.

Rights ethics was highly individualisc.

Rights are primarily entlements that prevent other

people from meddling in ones life. These are referred to

as Liberty Rights or Negave Rights that place dues on

other people not to interfere with ones life.e.g.

Individuals do not have rights to life because others have

dues not to kill them. Instead, possessing the right to

life is the reason why others ought not to kill them.

Drawbacks

How do we priorize the rights of dierent individuals?

Rights ethics oen promote the rights of individuals at

the expense of large groups/society

A.I.Meldens version of Rights Ethics

Human rights are inmately related to communiesof people.

This version is known as POSITIVE WELFARE RIGHTSand is dened as rights to community benets for

living a minimally decent human life.

EVALUATION OF ETHICAL THEORIES

We are basically not interested in which of the ethical

theories is the best. It is believed that there are areas in

which each theory complements others by how they

dier.

Procedure for General Evaluaon:

1. The theory must be clear and formulated with

concepts that are coherent and applicable.

2. It must be internally consistent in that none of its

tenets contradicts any other.

3. Neither the theory nor its defense can rely upon false

informaon.

4. It must be suciently comprehensive to provide

guidance in specic situaons of interest to us.

5. It must be compable with our most carefully

considered moral convicons about concrete situaons.

SELF-INTEREST AND ETHICAL EGOISM

Psychological Egoism -All of our acons can be reduced

to self-interest

We always do what we most want to do. e.g., a man

who helps others has chosen to do so, so he sees doing

it, is in his self-interest

We do what makes us feel good. e.g., a man who helps

others must get pleasure from doing it hence it is in hisself-interest

The Problem of Counter Examples

What about charity and pity?

These require the egoist to disnguish selsh and

unselsh acts from selsh and unselsh moves

Charity I enjoy showing my power

Pity I worry that it might happen to me

So again, doing these, we act from self-interest

Confusion over self-interest and selshness

Not all acons are done from selshness

Brushing my teeth (self-interested but not selsh)

Also confusion over self-interest and pleasure

Not all acons are done from self-interest

Smoking cigarees (pleasurable but not self-interested)

Self-interest = any interest the self has

What do all major Ethical Theories say about this?

All major theories acknowledge the importance of Self

Interest.

Ulitarian take into account ones own good as wellas others.

Duty ethics emphasizes dues to ourselves. Right ethicists talk about our rights to pursue our

own good.

Virtue ethicists emphasize the importance of self-respect.

But all these theories also emphasize that the pursuit of

self-interest must be balanced with our moral

responsibilies to others.

Ethical Egoism

A dierent view, which talks of morality as only the

pursuit of self interest

Self-interest is a raonal concern requiring

consideraon of ones long-term interests. E.g., taking

bribe may appear to serve ones self interest but it does

not serve the long-term interest of self. Hence taking

bribe is not acceptable since it would not do any good on

a long-term. This was professed by Thomas Hobbes

(1588-1679) and Ayn Rand (1905-1982).

Ayn Rand with only one life to live, the individual is of

utmost importance

It is in ones self-interest to adopt the Moral Point of

View (Hobbes Social Contract)

CUSTOMS and ETHICAL RELATIVISM

Relavism:

Disncon between morals (treatment of others)

and mores (harmless customs)

Cultural (Descripve) Relavism:


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Factual Claims: x is considered right in society y at me

t and is considered wrong in society z at me t

Empirical Conclusion: Moralies are relave

This is either true or false (anthropology a study of

mankind, its customs, beliefs, etc. Can gure it out)

Normave (Ethical) Relavism:

Normave Claim: What is considered right insociety x at me t is right for that society

A parcular culture cannot be judged from outsideof that culture.

Ethical Relavism says that acons are morally rightwhen they are approved by law and custom.

They are wrong when they violate laws and custom. Ethical egoism tries to reduce moral reasons to

maers of self-interest, ethical relavism aempts

to reduce moral values to laws, convenons and

customs of parcular sociees.

Consequences of Normave Relavism

We cannot say other morals are inferior to our own

sociees

We decide the value of our acons based only on what

our parcular society thinks

We should show a lot of tolerance for dierent customs

and outlooks in a society in which we live in. It means

that customs can have moral signicance in deciding how

we should act. This view is calledethical pluralism.

Reasons for Acceptance of Ethical Relavism

The reasons professed for acceptance of ethical

relavism is threefold.

1. Laws seem so tangible and clear-cut. They provide a

public way ending seemingly endless disputes about

rights and wrongs. But many mes, moral reasons seem

to be at variance with laws e.g. apartheid laws.

2. Moral standards vary dramacally from one culture to

another. The only kind of objecvity possible is limited to

a given set of laws in a given society. Acknowledging this

relavity of morality encourages the virtue of tolerance

of dierences among sociees.

3. Moral judgments should be made in relaon to factors

that from case to case, usually making it impossible to

formulate rules which are simple. Customs and laws are

usually morally relevant factors that should be taken into

account.

RELIGION and DIVINE COMMAND ETHICS

Ethics and Religion: Moral issues and religious belief are

related in several posive ways.

First, they are shaped over me from the centralmoral values of major world religions.

Second, religious views oen support moralresponsibility by providing addional movaon for

being moral.

Third, somemes religions set a higher moralstandard than is convenonal.

Sociees oen benet from a variety of religionsthat make prominent parcular virtues, inspiring

their members to pursue them beyond what is

ordinarily seen as morally obligatory.

Divine Command Ethic:

This says that an act which is right is commanded bygod and the one which is wrong is forbidden by God.

The diculty in this i s to know precisely what Godscommands are and in knowing whether God exists.

We can view that moral reasons are not reducible toreligious maers, although religious belief may

provide an added inspiraon for responding to

them.

Documents

Professional Ethics Class Notes Set 1 and 2