ENGINEERING

PROFESSIONALISM AND
ETHICS
EGN 4034
FALL 2008

CHAPTER 3-4
Organizing Principles

CHAPTER 3-4

LEARING OBJECTIVES

Students should be able to:

Understand the two main branches of
philosophy
Understand the subdisciplines within
these two main branches
Develop an understanding of how to
apply philosophical tests in
addressing engineering ethical
problems

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

THE TWO MAJOR BRANCHES OF
PHILOSOPHY
UTILITARIANISM
RESPECT FOR PERSONS

(Deontology)

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

UTILITARIANISM
Favors bringing about the greatest
total amount of good that we can.
Problem:

Define the most good (utility)

Define the audience over which the
good is maximized.
It can perpetrate injustice on
individuals.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches
Cost/Benefit
Q What might be an example of
cost/benefit?
Act Utilitarianism
Rule Utilitarianism

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches
Cost/Benefit

Tries to make the benefit quantifiable by:

Assessing the available options
Assess the costs and benefits of each
option.
Choose the option that is likely to provide
the most benefit.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches
Cost/Benefit Problems

Assumes that economic measures of cost

and benefit override other considerations.
Q What might be other considerations?
Difficulty with ascertaining the costs and
benefits of the many factors (human life)
Does not take into account the unequal
distribution of costs and benefits.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches
Act Utilitarianism

Decide on the different possible courses of

action (The Act)
Determine the audience
Decide on which course of action is likely to
bring about the greatest good for the
appropriate audience, taking into account
harms as well as benefits.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Utilitarian Thinking

Three Utilitarian Approaches

Rule Utilitarianism

Define specific rules by:

Asking, would utility be maximized if everyone did
the same thing under similar circumstances?
Example rules for the road.
When rules are reasonably well understood and
generally accepted, we should use the rules as a
guide to action rather than to try to calculate the
likely consequences.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Ethics of Respect for Persons

those actions or rules are right that, if
followed, would accord equal respect to
each person as a moral agent.
Moral agents are those persons capable
of formulating or pursuing goals and
purposes of their own.
Persons, as moral agents, are not to be
treated as mere means to fulfilling the
ends or goals of others.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Ethics of Respect for Persons

Golden Rule
Basically the Universality principle
Resolution of a moral issue must be one
that would be universally acceptable if
others resolved similar issues in similar
ways.
Understandably, both Utilitarianism and
Respect for Persons ethics employ this
principle.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Ethics of Respect for Persons

Self-Defeating Test
Another application of the universalizability
principle.
Would I be able to perform the same action
in the same or similar circumstances if
everyone else performed the same action in
the same or similar circumstances
What is an example of such an act that
would be self-defeating?

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Ethics of Respect for Persons

Rights Test
Because Rights can sometimes conflict, a
system of priority must be given to
individual rights.
Q - What is an example of conflicting
rights?
Similar to the Rule Utilitarian test, the
Rights Test applies a list of universal rights
arranged in a hierarchy of importance.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Convergence, Divergence, and Creative

Middle Way

Convergence although Utilitarian and

Respect for Persons standards are different,
they often lead to the same conclusion.
What does convergence do for us?
It strengthens our conclusions because they
are supported by more than one kind of basic
reasoning (both utilitarian and RP).

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Convergence, Divergence, and Creative

Middle Way

Divergence applying both Utilitarian and

Respect for Persons standards can also lead
to different conclusions.
What does divergence do for us?
It may be telling us that neither of these
standards is individually the better conclusion.
And that the better solution may be a creative
middle way.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Convergence, Divergence, and Creative

Middle Way

We have seen application of the creative

middle way in Chapter 3 using line-drawings.
Creative Middle Way solutions are best used
when we have conflict problems that deal with
a hard choice between ethical standards.
What can you think of that might illustrate
when a creative middle way is used?
What about national politics? Dont politicians
compromise on most issues in order to keep
our political processes moving?

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

We now have Ethical Principles we
can apply in making ethical choices.
Utilitarianism (three tests)
Respect for Persons (three tests)
And always a middle ground
between conflicting ethical principles
or standards.

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches

Ethics of Respect for Persons

Cost/Benefit
Act Utilitarianism
Rule Utilitarianism
Golden Rule
Self-Defeating Test
Rights Test

Convergence, Divergence, and Creative

Middle Way

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

Utilitarian Thinking
Consider the Location of the landfill
by engineer David Parkinson
What is Davids dilemma?
Where to locate the landfill
Why has this become a problem?
Special interest groups opposition
What should David do?

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

David needs to make a good engineering

decision
How can he do this?
He could check his code of ethics
(p. 376) Read Fundamental Cannons
What else could he do?
He could apply a creative middle way
solution as we read about in chapter 3
What else could he do?
He could apply an ethical principle

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

What ethical principle(s) could he apply?

Utilitarianism or Respect for persons
Or possibly some combination of these
two
He could apply a creative middle way
solution.
We must now begin to think of the tools
available to us when we confront ethical
problems.

BASIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION

WHAT IS

HAPPINESS

CHAPTER 3-4 Organizing Principles

THIS IS A BASIC QUESTION FROM
PHILOSOPHY
SINCE THE EARLY GREEKS THIS HAS BEEN
THE BURNING QUESTION
IN YOUR GROUPS
DEFINE HAPPINESS
GROUP # ? WILL BE THE SCRIBE
I WILL CALL ON GROUPS TO GIVE YOUR
RESPONSE