Lecture 8

7.2.2022

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
Senses of ‘Engineering Ethics’
Variety of moral issues
Types of inquiry
Moral dilemmas
Moral autonomy

Course Code: 316

BTech Final year
Course Instructor: Dr. A. Suneetha Rajesham
 Engineering Ethics
 Engineering Ethics is the set of rules and guidelines that engineers
adhere to as a moral obligation to their profession and to the world.
 Engineering is a professional career that impacts lives. Engineers “
require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity, and must be
dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare.”
 Engineering Ethics applies to every engineer and is very important.
 Engineering ethics is (1) the study of moral issues and decisions
confronting individuals and organizations involved in engineering
and (2) the study of related questions about moral conduct, character,
ideals and relationships of peoples and organizations involved in
technological development.”— Martin
 Ethics Engineering Ethics

1. Ethics is an activity which concerns with 1. Like the ethics, engineering ethics also
making investigations and knowing about aims at knowing moral values related to
moral values, finding solutions to moral engineering, finding accurate solutions to
issues and justifying moral issues and the moral problems in engineering and
justifying moral judgments. justifying moral judgments of engineering.
2. Ethics is a means of contrasting moral 2. Engineering Ethics gives a total view of the
questions from non-moral problems. moral problems and how to solve these
3. Ethics is also used as a means of describing issues specifically related to engineering
the beliefs, attitudes and habits related to field.
an individual’s or group’s morality. Eg. : 3. Engineering ethics is also using some
Ethics given in the Bhagavat Gita or the currently accepted codes and standards
Bible or the Quran. which are to be followed by group of
4. Engineering ethics also concerns with engineers and engineering societies.
discovering moral principles such as 4. As per the definition of dictionaries –
obligation, rights and ideals in engineering ‘moral principles’ is about the actions and
and by applying them to take a correct principles of conduct of the people. i.e.
decision. ethical or unethical
Senses of Engineering Ethics: The word ‘ethics’ has distinct several but related
meanings. Below described are the four additional senses of the expression
‘Engineering Ethics’.
 Ethics is an activity and area of inquiry. It is the activity of understanding, resolving
and justifying moral judgments. In a parallel manner, Engineering Ethics is the
activity and discipline that is targeted to guide engineering practice, resolving moral
issues in engineering and justifying moral judgments concerning engineering.
 Ethical problems are different from non-moral problems. Here the word ‘Ethical’
marks a sharp contrast between moral questions and questions of political, legal or
artistic issues. Engineering Ethics in this sense refer to the set of problems that is
specifically related with engineering arena.
 Engineering Ethics is a purely factual matter about what is good or bad in
engineering profession. It is a distinct discipline in which engineers might be
interested where they can observe, describe and explain different incidents and
relate those issues with existing ethical context.
 Engineering Ethics aim to establish a set of justified moral principles related purely
with engineering matters. Discovering such principles and applying them in
concrete situations is the central goal of Engineering Ethics.
Senses of Engineering
 Using codes of ethics and standards and applying them in
their transactions by engineers.
 There are two different senses (meanings) of engineering
ethics, namely the Descriptive and the Normative senses
 The Descriptive sense refers to what specific individual or
group of engineers believe an act, without justifying their
beliefs or actions.
 The Normative sense refers to knowing moral values, finding
accurate solutions to moral problems and justifying moral
judgments in engineering practices
 The main difference between normative ethics and descriptive
ethics is that normative ethics analyses how people ought to act
whereas descriptive ethics analyses what people think is right.
The normative sense includes:
 Knowing moral values, finding accurate solutions to moral
problems and justifying moral judgments in engineering practices
 Study of decisions, policies, and values that are morally desirable
in the engineering practice and research
 Using codes of ethics and standards and applying them in their
transactions by engineers.
The descriptive sense refers to what specific individual or group of
engineers believe an act, without justifying their beliefs or actions
Variety of moral issues
A moral issue can be understood as an issue to be resolved not only by
considering the technical stuff but also by keeping moral values in mind
 “Moral issue is a working definition of an issue of moral concern as is
presented in any issue with the potential to help or harm anyone,
including oneself.”
There are mainly two types of Moral issues
Micro-ethics
 This approach stresses more on the problems that occur on a daily basis
in the field of engineering and its practice by engineers.
Macro-ethics
 This approach deals with social problems which are unknown.
However, these problems may unexpectedly face the heat at both
regional and national levels.
 Types of Inquiries
The issues can be resolved by following an investigation
procedure, step by step in order to have a clear understanding
towards the issue. Here we have three different types of
inquiries.
Judging the issues has to be followed by a systematic procedure
to avoid any flaws. Engineering ethics involves investigations
into values, meanings and facts.
Following are the different types of inquiries made for this:
 Normative inquiries
 Conceptual inquiries
 Factual or descriptive inquiries
Types of Inquiry
Normative Inquiry
 Itseeks 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 questions are about what ought to be and what is good, based on moral values
For 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, engineers’ associations or all of them?
Normative Inquiry refers to the description that describes what
one ought to do under a specific circumstance.
This is the expected ideal response, which might differ from what
one believes to be right or wrong.
This list identifies and justifies the morally desirable nature for
guiding individuals or groups.
 Responsibilityof engineers to protect the public safety and
how they should respond under such dangerous practices
 Quote the laws and procedures that affect the engineering
practice on moral grounds
 Referto the thought process where the moral rights are to be
implemented in order to fulfill their professional obligations
Conceptual Inquiries
 Itis directed to clarify the meaning of concepts or ideas or principles
that are expressed by words or by questions and statements.
For example:
 (a) What is meant by safety?
 (b) How is it related to risk?
 (c) What is a bribe?
 (d) What is a profession?
When moral concepts are discussed, normative and conceptual issues
are closely interconnected
Factual and Descriptive Inquiries

 Factual Inquiry or the descriptive inquiry help to provide

the facts for understanding and finding solutions to the
value based issues
 The engineer has to conduct factual inquiries by using
scientific techniques.
 This helps in providing the information regarding the
business realities such as engineering practice, history of
engineering profession, the effectiveness of professional
societies, the procedures to be adopted when assessing
risks and psychological profiles of engineers
Dr. A. Suneetha Rajesham. PhD.(Psy),
MPhil(Psy); PGDPsyclCoun; PGDNut&Dietetics, Reiki IIIA

Phone: 8008464885
email: suneetharajesham@ifheindia.org