What Are Engineering Ethics?

Engineering ethics refers to the moral value of justification in engineering. Since the 1970s, engineering ethics has begun to rise in some developed countries such as the United States. After the last 20 years of the 20th century, the teaching and research of engineering ethics has gradually entered the institutionalization stage.

Engineering ethics

(Subject term)

Let me talk about the translation first. In English, ethics can be translated as "

The definition involves an understanding of the concepts of engineering and ethics. In the American education and academia, the understanding of engineering usually involves engineers, and engineering and engineer seem to be a pair of terms that always appear in pairs in the definition of these two terms. It's as if ethics and moral appear in pairs in their respective definitions, and people are always used to defining one with the other. Davis believes that this is, to some extent, a cyclic definition, and the definition item directly or indirectly contains the defined item. How to define engineering is still controversial.

Generally speaking, there are two approaches to the understanding of engineering ethics. One is to look at engineering from the perspective of science and technology, and the other is to look at engineering from the perspective of career and professional activities. The first perspective easily leads to

As a professional ethics or practical ethics, the method of ethics is naturally introduced into engineering ethics. Utilitarian ethics, Kant's ethics of respect for humans, and virtue theory are three commonly used methods. For the same

Institutionalization of Engineering Ethics

In terms of institutionalization, a directly related issue is the occupation registration system. In 1907, in order to curb frequent silver mine accidents, Wyoming passed the first bill in the history of the United States that sets standards that must be met to apply for a professional engineer license (or registration). Since then, each state has promulgated similar laws, requiring engineers to apply for a professional engineer license (PE license). State registration committees are responsible for managing the implementation of the Engineer Registration Act. The National Engineering and Measurement Examination Board (NCEES), which is composed of state registration committees, has become the management organization for standardized examinations for professional engineers. The license exam consists of two separate exams: the foundation part and professional practice. In the basic part, the test questions in engineering ethics accounted for a certain point.

At present, there is considerable controversy surrounding the professional engineer license system. One view is that the "Public License" is that they believe that the PE license should be extended to all engineering professions, requiring all practitioners to apply for a license. However, the use of PE licenses as a prerequisite for engineering professions has considerable resistance in the engineering world. Therefore, another view advocates "industry exemption", which considers that only engineers engaged in industries closely related to public safety, happiness, and well-being are required to apply for a license, while engineers in other industries are exempted. This kind of controversy goes far beyond the academic and educational circles, and the political and industrial circles have become the two major camps of controversy. At present, neither the general issuance of licenses nor the claims of industrial exemption can convince the US Congress to pass corresponding legislation. In the United States, many engineering projects can currently be carried out without a license, but when a project involves public safety, only a licensed engineer can work on the design and implementation of the project.

Most US engineers do not have a PE license. This means that most engineers cannot resist engaging in unethical behavior in a way that may result in their PE licenses being revoked. So, should the registration requirements for engineers be modified to make it easier for most engineers to obtain a license? Apart from PE licenses, is there any other way to ensure the quality of the project and protect the engineer from becoming unethical due to excessive pressure?

The second aspect of institutionalization is the formulation of engineering societies and association ethics regulations. Unlike the state registration committee, the engineering society is a non-governmental organization, so its charter has no legal effect. Compared to other professions, such as medicine and lawyers, the engineering profession lacks a unified community to represent the entire engineering community. The engineering community in the United States can be broadly divided into two categories: academic research-oriented communities, and

Technology has had a profound and extensive impact on our world, and engineers have played a central role in the development of all aspects of technology. Engineers create products and programs to increase food production, strengthen plant protection, save energy consumption, speed up communications and transportation, promote physical health, and eliminate natural disasters. They also bring more convenience and beauty to human life. But while technology brings benefits, it also produces

Driven by the cooperation between engineers and philosophers, lawyers, sociologists, and groups interested in professional ethics, engineering ethics has made great progress, studied a large number of engineering ethics issues, clarified core concepts, and demonstrated specific ethics. Perspectives, and promoted the new characteristics and trends of American engineering ethics, mainly in three aspects:

Specialization and institutionalization of research objects

Engineer ethics issues are the basis and focus of research. Many scholars analyze and explore the moral dilemma of engineers from various angles. Generally speaking, it can be divided into three aspects. The first is the relationship between engineers and ethics. Although people pay more and more attention to ethical issues in engineering, many engineers still pay insufficient attention to ethical issues. Kenneth K. Humphreys combined with the ethical problems that engineers face in daily life, pointing out the ethical dilemma of engineers and the legal necessity of ethical norms and ethical behaviors in engineering professions. [5] Edmund G. Seebauer and Robert L. Barry argued that the complexity and complexity of ethical issues in engineering must be clarified.

Engineering ethics originated from the critique of technology and the questioning of engineers. Therefore, from the perspective of the establishment of engineering ethics, we can call it both "technical ethics" and "engineer ethics." The former is mainly aimed at the negative effects of technology and the negative effects of technology. In fact, the effects and effects of technology are reflected in engineering activities, and they are all studied in the framework of engineering. The latter is mainly from the engineering community. Engineers play an important role in technical design and improvement in engineering activities. At the same time, they also face moral dilemmas such as conflicts of interest, conflicts with employers or the public. Therefore, considering the development experience of American engineering ethics, we must first strengthen the professionalization process of engineers, formulate realistic and reasonable ethical norms, and promote the development of engineer ethics. Secondly, accelerate the development of engineering ethics education, provide relevant courses in engineering ethics in engineering colleges, conduct engineering ethics training, and improve the moral sensitivity of engineering students. Thirdly, due to the regional characteristics of engineering, not only engineers are faced with moral dilemmas in engineering activities in China, other engineering communities such as the manager community, workers 'community, entrepreneurs' community, and the public community must face a variety of moral choices. There is a certain similarity to the situation of engineers. Therefore, in the development of engineering ethics, it is more necessary to pay attention to the moral dilemmas of other engineering communities.

From the perspective of engineering ethics research methods, the two mainstream research methods, engineering case study analysis, and conceptual and normative theoretical research have promoted the development of American engineering ethics research. As for the case study method, due to the particularity and specificity of typical cases, it does not have greater universality and applicability, which also causes methodological limitations. However, due to the influence of various factors on the material involved in the engineering cases in China, there will be considerable difficulties in the excavation and collection of the specific reasons of the case facts; on the other hand, in terms of the ethical concepts of engineers, There are deficiencies in their understanding, which makes it difficult to carry out case studies in our country. As for the concepts, norms and principles of engineering ethics, and the discipline orientation of engineering ethics, since engineering ethics has not yet begun in China, these basic theoretical studies need to continue to be debated and discussed. However, the comprehensive use of theoretical analysis and case studies will be our primary method. At the same time, we need to make full use of investigation methods to discover the real ethical problems that emerge in our engineering, understand the ethical consciousness and moral dilemma of our engineers, and explore the engineering students Ethical education to promote the development of engineering ethics in China.

From the perspective of research and development, engineering ethics has gradually included computer ethics, environmental ethics, and military ethics into its horizons for investigation. At the same time, these issues are also global issues that have a bearing on human survival and development. With the advancement of China's modernization process, intellectual property issues and environmental issues have become increasingly prominent, severely disrupting the sustainable development of our economy. Therefore, to learn from the new trends of engineering ethics, in the cross-cultural moral perspective, to promote technology transfer and technology introduction, and promote China's industrialization progress.