PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
• Being morally responsible as a professional. • Most basic and comprehensive professional virtue. • Creation of useful and safe technological products while respecting the autonomy of clients and public, especially in matters of risk taking. This encompasses a wide variety of the more specific 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 affected by the engineers’ work by. Not directly and intentionally harming others i.e. ‘no maleficence’. Beneficence, sense of community, generosity are other virtues falling in this category. 3. TEAMWORK VIRTUES:…
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 exertion 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 (emotions): control attraction to positive emotions…
TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORIES
S.NOTYPESBASED ON1Virtue ethicsVirtues and vices2UtilitarianismMost good for most people3Duty ethicsDuties to respect persons4Rights ethicsHuman Rights
MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS
1. SAVIOR: The representative engineer is a savior who will redeem society from poverty, inefficiency, waste and the drudgery of manual labour. 2. GUARDIAN: Engineers know, the directions in which and pace at which, technology should develop. 3. BUREAUCRATIC SERVANT: The engineer as the loyal organization person uses special skills to solve problems. 4. SOCIAL SERVANT: Engineers, in co-operation with management, have the task of receiving society’s directives and satisfying 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 effect at a given time.
MOTIVES FOR PROFESSIONALISM
• A desire for interesting and challenging work and the pleasure in the act of changing the world. • The joy of creative efforts. Where a scientist’s interest is in discovering new technology, engineers interest is derived from creatively solving practical problems. • The engineer shares the scientist’s job in understanding 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 machines generating a comforting and absorbing sense of a manageable, controlled and ordered world. • Strong sense of helping, of directing efforts towards easing the lot of one’s fellows. The main pleasure of the engineer will always be to contribute to the well-being of his fellow-men.
PROFESSIONS AND PROFESSIONALISM
Engineers normally imagine that they are servants to organizations rather than a public guardian. Responsibility to the public is essential 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 discretion requiring extensive formal criteria. • Organization - special bodies by members of the profession to set standard codes of ethics, • Public good-The occupation serves some important public good indicated by a code of ethics. Who is a professional engineer? • Has a bachelor’s degree in engineering from an accredited school • Performs engineering work…
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 arithmetic. • Aim of teaching engg ethics is not to get unanimous conformity of outlook by indoctrination, authoritarian and dogmatic teaching, hypnotism or any other technique but to improve promotion 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 suffer. Hence the authority and autonomy are compatible. On the other hand, tension arises between the needs for autonomy and the need for concerns about authority. The difference between the two should be discussed openly to resolve the issue to the common good.
HEINZ’S DILEMMA
The famous example used by Kohlberg was called “Heinz’s dilemma”. A woman living in Europe would die of cancer unless she was given an expensive drug. Her husband, Heinz, could not afford 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. Desperation 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 life-threatening illness. The responses of the individuals were compared with a prototypical response of individuals at particular stages of moral reasoning. Kohlberg noted that irrespective of the level of the individual the response could be same, but the reasoning could be different. For example, if a child reasoning at a ‘preconventional’ level might say that it is not right to steal because it is against law and someone might see you. At a ‘conventional’ level, an individual might argue that it is not right to steal because it is against law and laws are necessary for society to function. At a ‘post conventional’ level, one may argue that stealing is wrong because is against law and it is immoral.
Differences between the TWO THEORIES
KOHLBERGGILLIGAN I. Ethics of rules and rightsEthics of careII. Studies based on well educated, white male’s only, tending male bias.Studies included females and colored peoplesIII. Application of abstract rules ranked in the order of importanceApplication of context-oriented reasoning.IV. Studies were hypothesized for both the genders even though the study was conducted mostly on malesStudy was conducted on both genders and it was found, men based their reasoning on‘justice’ and women based theirs on ‘care’
KOHLBERG’S THEORY
STAGES OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT • Pre-conventional Level Whatever benefits oneself or avoids punishment. This is the level of development of all young children. -Avoid punishment & Gain Reward • Conventional Level Uncritical acceptance of one’s family, group or society are accepted as final standard of morality. Most adults do not mature beyond this stage. -1.Gain Approval & Avoid Disapproval & 2. Duty & Guilt • Post-conventional Level Motivation to do what is morally reasonable for its own sake, rather than solely from ulterior motives, 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
