Introduction

Achmad Adyatma Ardi

 Objectives
• Know why it is important to study engineering
ethics
• Understand the distinction between
professional and personal ethics
• See how ethical problem solving and
engineering design are similar
 1.1 Background Ideas
• During their undergraduate education, engineers
receive training in basic and engineering sciences,
problemsolving methodology, and engineering
design, but generally receive little training in ethics.
• The purpose of this book is to provide a text and a
resource for the study of engineering ethics and to
help future engineers be prepared for confronting
and resolving ethical dilemmas, such as the design of
an unsafe product like the Pinto, that they might
encounter during their professional careers.
1.2 Why study engineering ethics ?
• Increased awareness of importance
due to publicity surrounding high
profile engineering failures.
• Engineering decisions can impact
public health, safety, business
practices and politics.
• Engineers should be aware of moral
implications as they make decisions in
the workplace.
 1.3 Engineering is managing the unknown
• One source of the ethical issues encountered in the course of engineering
practice is a lack of knowledge.
• This is by no means an unusual situation in engineering. Engineers often
encounter situations in which they don’t have all of the information that is
needed. By its nature, engineering design is about creating new devices and
products
• When something is new, many questions need to be answered. How well does it
work? How will it affect people? What changes will this lead to in society? How
well will this work under all of the conditions that it will be exposed to? Is it
safe? If there are some safety concerns, how bad are they? What are the effects
of doing nothing? The answers to these questions are often only partly known
• Really, as an engineer you can never be absolutely certain that your design will
never harm anyone or cause detrimental changes to society. But you must test
your design as thoroughly as time and resources permit to ensure that it
operates safely and as planned. Also, you must use your creativity to attempt to
foresee the possible consequences of your work.
1.4 Personal vs Professional ethics
• . Personal ethics deals with how we treat others in our
day-to-day lives. Many of these principles are applicable to
ethical situations that occur in business and engineering.
• However, professional ethics often involves choices on an
organizational level rather than a personal level. Many of
the problems will seem different because they involve
relationships between two corporations, between a
corporation and the government, or between corporations
and groups of individuals. Frequently, these types of
relationships pose problems that are not encountered in
personal ethics.
 1.5 The origins of ethical thought
• originated in the philosophy of the ancient Greeks and
their predecessors
• developed through subsequent centuries by many thinkers
in the Judeo–Christian tradition. Interestingly, non-
Western cultures have independently developed similar
ethical principles.
• Although for many individuals, personal ethics are rooted
in religious beliefs, this is not true for everyone. Certainly,
there are many ethical people who are not religious, and
there are numerous examples of people who appear to be
religious but who are not ethical.
 1.6 Ethics dan the law
• We should also mention the role of law in engineering ethics. The practice of
engineering is governed by many laws on the international, federal, state,
and local levels.
• There is also a distinction between what is legal and what is ethical. Many
things that are legal could be considered unethical. For example, designing a
process that releases a known toxic, but unregulated, substance into the
environment is probably unethical, although it is legal.
• Conversely, just because something is illegal doesn’t mean that it is
unethical. For example, there might be substances that were once thought
to be harmful, but have now been shown to be safe, that you wish to
incorporate into a product. If the law has not caught up with the latest
scientifc findings, it might be illegal to release these substances into the
environment, even though there is no ethical problem in doing so
1.7 Ethics problems are like design problems
• The essence of engineering practice is the design of products,
structures, and processes. The design problem is stated in terms of
specifcations: A device must be designed that meets criteria for
performance, aesthetics, and price. Within the limits of these
specifcations, there are many correct solutions. There will, of course,
be some solutions that are better than others in terms of higher
performance or lower cost. Frequently, there will be two (or more)
designs that are very different, yet perform identically.
• Ethical problem solving shares these attributes with engineering
design. Although there will be no unique correct solution to most of
the problems we will examine, there will be a range of solutions that
are clearly right, some of which are better than others. There will also
be a range of solutions that are clearly wrong.
 1.8 Case studies
• Ford pinto