Professional Ethics Lecture – 2 b 5th 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 345 Introduction: 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

2006 : Maglev Train Accident in Lathen (Germany)

2004 : Millau Viaduct (France) 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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