Engineering and ethics

2. Ethics and engineering

‘Ethics’ (in this context) can be used in three senses: (a) as a synonym for ordinary morality; (b) as the name of a philosophical study attempting to understand morality as a rational undertaking; or (c) as the name of certain special standards of conduct governing members of a group in virtue of their membership (see Morality and ethics §§1–2).

In the first sense, engineering ethics is the application of ordinary moral rules, principles, or ideals to circumstances involving engineering. Neither philosophers nor codes of professional ethics have more than an educational or heuristic role. In the second sense, engineering ethics consists of attempts to offer a reasoned understanding (a theory) of how ordinary morality should guide engineering. In this sense, engineering ethics is just a subdivision of moral theory (‘philosophical ethics’). But in the third sense, engineering ethics resembles law. Just as a law (or legal system) applies only to certain moral agents, those within its jurisdiction, so engineering ethics would apply only to certain moral agents, engineers. And just as law includes the interpretation, application, and justification of particular laws, so engineering ethics would include the interpretation, application and justification of engineering’s special standards. The philosophical contribution to engineering ethics (in this sense) resembles legal philosophy’s contribution to law, more a sorting of concepts and arguments than an application of moral theory.

Formal codes of engineering ethics did not appear in England before the mid-1800s, in the United States before 1900, or in Germany before the 1950s. While many professions, especially law and medicine, make a commitment to the profession’s code of ethics a formal requirement for admission, engineering has not, except for licensed Professional Engineers. Instead, the expectation of commitment reveals itself when an engineer is found to have violated the code of ethics. The defence, ‘I’m an engineer but I didn’t promise to follow the code and therefore did nothing wrong’, is never accepted. The profession answers, ‘You committed yourself to the code when you claimed to be an engineer.’

While engineering ethics (in our third sense) dates from the 1800s, its philosophical study (ethics in our second sense) dates only from the 1970s. The field is still taking shape, working out its relation with moral theory, philosophy of technology, and philosophy of the professions.

Engineering ethics does not yet have a settled place in the college curriculum. In philosophy departments, classes in engineering ethics are often called ‘Moral Problems in Engineering’; in engineering departments, ‘Issues in Professionalism’. A course in engineering ethics, whether taught in a philosophy or an engineering department, will cover much about the history and organization of engineering.