Professional EthicsProfessional Ethics

Lecture – 2 bLecture – 2 b5th5th Sep 2012 Sep 2012

Center for Advanced Studies in Engineering

Shahid Iqbal

• 1912: Titanic

Introduction: some cases

• 1973: Ford Pinto : Fuel System design

Introduction: some cases

• 1974: DC 10 Turkish jet crashes near Paris, killing 345Introduction: some cases

• 1984: Bhopal Accident (India): Chemical Plant

Introduction: some cases

• 1986: Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster

Introduction: some cases

• 1986: Tchernobyl: Nuclear Power Plant Disaster

Introduction: some cases

• 1987 : Herald of Free Enterprise (Zeebrugge, Be)

Introduction: some cases

• 1998 : ICE Train Accident in Eschede (Germany)

Introduction: some cases

• 2000: Concorde Crash (Paris)

Introduction: some cases

Introduction: some cases

• 2006 : Maglev Train Accident in Lathen (Germany)

• 2004 : Millau Viaduct (France)

Introduction: some cases

Introduction: some cases• 2008 : Boeing 787 vs Airbus 380?

Conclusions?- Incidents, Accidents, Disasters only?- More risky technology? Less risky

technology? - Responsibility: the company or the engineer? - Economics vs ethics?- …

Introduction: some cases

Engineering Ethics

Teaching engineering ethics : to acquire the following moral competences:

1. Moral sensibility: the ability to recognize social and ethical issues in technology

2. Moral analysis skills: the ability to analyse moral problems in terms of facts, values, stakeholders and their interests

3. Moral creativity: the ability to think out different options for action in the light of (conflicting) moral values and the relevant facts;

Engineering Ethics

Teaching engineering ethics : to acquire the following moral competences:

4. Moral judgment skills: the ability to give a moral judgment on the basis of different ethical theories or frameworks including professional ethics and common sense morality

5. Moral decision-making skills: the ability to reflect on different ethical theories and frameworks and to make a decision based on that reflection

6. Moral argumentation skills: the ability to morally justify one’s actions and to discuss and evaluate them together with other engineers and non-engineers

Engineering Ethics

Code of Ethics for Engineers I. Fundamental Canons

Engineers, in the fulfillment of their professional duties, shall:– Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the

public in the performance of their professional duties.– Perform services only in areas of their competence.– Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful

manner.– Act in professional matters for each employer or client

as faithful agents or trustees.– Avoid deceptive acts in the solicitation of professional

employment(ref. Martin and Schinzinger, pg 352)

Personal Ethics - Everyday Examples

• Software piracy

• Expense account padding

• Copying of homework or tests

• Income taxes

• “Borrowing” nuts and bolts, office supplies from employer

• Copying of Videos or CD’s

• Plagiarism

• Using the copy machine at work

Engineering Ethics

Conclusions:

1. Discussing ethics is not against technology, nor against “progress”, but failures, disasters, accidents, misuse of technology in the past, with or without conscience intentions, by engineers must open the discussion about “good” technology and the orientation and direction of what is meant by “technological progress”.

2. Ethics has a long tradition that can help in this evolution. Recent evolutions on “business ethics” and engineering ethics” proof this.

3. Ethics and technique should be partners in the struggle for a better world.

Engineering Ethics

Conclusions:

4. Even the new kind of legislation (e.g. European Directives) opens this debate: since 1992 Europe asks to implement the “precautionary principle”.

5. Legislation is less casuistic, and presents more frameworks that invite the ‘actors’ to behave as “good housekeepers”, to make a choice for “the best available technology”, to sustain “sustainable” technology,…: an invitation to engineers to use their ‘genius’, their creativity by difficult choices

Engineering Ethics

Conclusions:

6. Big corporations, companies, organizations,… have introduced the ethical option (“Corporate Social Responsibility”): its necessary to cope with problems that raise on a more global scale than ever.

7. No professional engineer can ignore this. There will be no place for “free riders”, otherwise this planet will be a disaster for the next generation. Will engineers join their companies in that direction? Will engineers influence the decision makers in a ‘good’ direction? Are they only executives of orders from elsewhere?

Engineering Ethics

Conclusions:8. Engineers (< geniuses!) have the knowledge, the

ability, the creativity and the capacity to make changes for a better world: on a small scale or on a large scale. Will they lack the courage?It’s a choice: to be in the vanguard of the peloton (with a lot of wind against you), in the peloton (safe and sure) or at the rear-guard to cope with the problems caused by the peloton, frustrated?

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