ENG 310

Ethics in Engineering

Chapter
Ethical Questions in the Design of Technology
The Design Process
The Process of Architecture

 Step 1: Interview and initial discussions. ...

 Step 2: Information gathering +
documentation. ...
 Step 3: Schematic Design and Feasibility. ...
 Step 4: Design Development + Permit
Documents. ...
 Step 5: Construction Documents + Permit
Acquisition. ...
 Step 6: Selection of a General Contractor. ...
 Step 7: Construction Administration.
Potential Moral Problems
 Ethical Issues in the Design Process
• The design process is a central area where ethical considerations
concerning technology arise.
• The reason for this is that crucial decisions regarding technology are
made in the design process.
• To an important extent the design of a technology determines how it
will be produced and be used, what maintenance will be required, and
how the product is to be scrapped.
• Obviously, later choices, by for example users, also are of importance,
but choices in the design process greatly influence the social
consequences of a product.
• Nearly all ethical questions related to technology development that
engineers are confronted with therefore are reflected in the design
process in some way or another.
 Ethical Issues in the Design Process
• Designing can be described as an activity in which engineers translate
certain functions or aims into a working product or system.
• A ferry can be conceived of as the translation of the function 'transporting
people from one side of the river to the other'.
• In most cases a function or social goal can be translated into a technical
solution in several ways. If you want to achieve transport between two
riverbanks, you can choose among a series of possible technical solutions,
such as a bridge, a tunnel, a ferry, or a cable-lift.
• The solution chosen not only depends on the function to be realized, but
on a series of additional design requirements, such as speed of transport,
costs, building time, sustainability, and safety.
 Ethical Issues in the Design Process
• Engineering design is thus the process in which certain functions are
translated into a blueprint for an artifact, system, or service that can
fulfill these functions.
• Engineering design is usually a systematic process in which use is made
of technical and scientific knowledge.
• The design process is an iterative process that can be divided in
different stages, like:

➢Problem analysis and formulation,

➢Conceptual design
➢Simulation,
➢Decision,
➢Detail design,
➢Prototype development and testing
 Trade-offs and Value Conflicts
• As we have seen, in the evaluation stage of the design process, the
design is assessed in terms of the design requirements.

• A choice has to be made between different designs.

• This choice is often far from simple, because the different designs usually
score well on different criteria.

• Trade-off decisions are difficult decisions anyway but they may become
particularly problematic if the different design criteria that conflict
correspond with different moral values.

• Here, too, moral questions may arise, because the design criteria
sometimes are related to different moral values.
 Trade-offs and Value Conflicts
• In such cases making trade-offs in design may amount to what we will
call a value conflict.

• More precisely, we will define a value conflict as the situation in which all
of the following conditions apply:
➢A choice has to be made between at least two options for which at
least two values are relevant as choice criteria.
➢At least two different values select at least two different options as
best. The reason for this condition is that if all values select the same
option as the best one, we do not really face a value conflict.
➢The values do not trump each other. If values trump each other, we
can simply order the options with respect to the most important value
and if two options score the same on this value we will examine the
scores with respect to the second, less important, value. So if values
trump each other, there is not a real value conflict
 Trade-offs and Value Conflicts
• Value conflicts can be morally problematic because they may well result
in the situation that the designers cannot do justice to all relevant
moral values simultaneously.
• In such cases, a value conflict amounts to a moral dilemma. We shall
discuss five ways in which this evaluation can take place:
➢cost-benefit analysis,
➢multi-criteria analysis,
➢the determination of thresholds for design criteria,
➢reasoning about values,
➢and the search for new technical solutions.

• For each method we shall present the main advantages and

disadvantages.
 Trade-offs and Value Conflicts
Five methods for making decisions in cases of value conflict in design:
• Cost-benefit analysis. The main disadvantage of this method is that, by
expressing everything in monetary units, it treats all relevant values as
commensurable. Nevertheless the method is systematic.
• Multiple criteria analysis. Like cost-benefit analysis, values are treated
here as commensurable, albeit not by expressing everything in terms of
money.
• Setting thresholds. This method avoids direct trade-offs between the
relevant values and may be helpful to set, for example, a minimal level of
safety.
• Reasoning about values, which is useful to get a better grip on the
values at play, their meaning and possible ways they can be combined or
traded off.
• Value Sensitive Design which is a design methodology that can help to
solve value conflicts by technical means, that is, by developing new
innovative designs.
Trade-offs and Value Conflicts
Multiple criteria analysis
The option with the highest value is then selected.
Reasoning

This approach emphasizes judgment and reasoning about values.

It aims at clarifying the values that underlie the conflicting design

requirements, and consist of three steps:

1) identifying relevant values,

2) specifying the values and

3) looking for common ground among values.

 Trade-offs and Value Conflicts
Value Sensitive Design

• In engineering design value conflicts may also be solved by

technical means.

• That is to say, in engineering it might be possible to develop new,

not yet existing, options that solve or at least ease the value
trade-off.

• In a sense, solving value tradeoffs by means of new technologies

is what lies at the heart of engineering design and technological
innovation.
 Trade-offs and Value Conflicts
One approach that takes into account the possibility to solve, or at
least ease, value conflicts through engineering design is Value
Sensitive Design.

Value Sensitive Design is an approach that aims at integrating

values of ethical importance in a systematic way within
engineering design.

The approach aims at integrating three kinds of investigations:

➢conceptual,
➢empirical
➢and technical.
 Trade-offs and Value Conflicts
Empirical investigations aim at understanding the contexts and
experiences of the people affected by technological designs. This is
relevant to appreciating precisely what values are at stake and
how these values are affected by different designs.
Conceptual investigations aim at clarifying the values at stake, and
at making trade-offs between the various values.

Technical investigations analyze designs and their operational

principles to assess how well they support particular values, and,
conversely, to develop new innovative designs that meet particular
morally relevant values particularly well. This is especially
interesting and relevant because it provides the opportunity to
develop new technical options that more adequately meet the
values of ethical importance than do current options.
Trade-Offs
in Design
 Case Studies
• I35W bridge
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6ommRCUcsg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L6fsel9hwg

• Tacoma bridge
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXyG68_caV4
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrqdFxpM_N4

• Deepwater Horizon\\
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfZXPlvmc7Y
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NQ8LehUWSE
• Citicorp
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAz55BvLrAo
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOYVaYZvg2Q
 Case Studies
• German train crash

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fMWlSjeMnM

0-15, 42-50
• Ariane 5
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK_yguLapgA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3YJeoYgozw