Faculty of Engineering

EM 471
Engineering Ethics and Professional Conduct

Lecture 02
Introduction to engineering ethics and professionalism
purpose of studying professional ethics, engineering as a
profession: historical and social context

Semester I, 2020|2021
23 November, 2020 ~ 19 March, 2021

27 December, 2020
 Ethics as Relating to Engineering

Engineering often is based on Preventative

Ethics which is based on two dimensions: -
1. Engineers must be able to think ahead to
anticipate possible consequences of their
professional actions.

2. Engineers must be able to think effectively

about those consequences and decide what is the
‘ethically’ correct manner to handle the situation.

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 What is a Profession?
•No universally accepted definition, but one
good working definition is:
A number of individuals in the same
occupation, voluntarily organized to
earn a living by openly serving a
moral ideal in a morally permissible
way, beyond what law, market,
morality, and public opinion would
otherwise require 3
 Profession (Cont.)
A number of individuals

Public element (profess)

Earn a living

Morally praiseworthy goal by

morally permissible means

Higher ethical standards than others

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 Standards of Proper Conduct
Professional Ethics
the set of standards adopted by professionals to govern
their actions and their particular profession, often
listed in a ‘code of ethics’ for that profession.
Personal Values (Ethics)
the set of one’s own ethical commitments, usually
acquired and/or developed in early home, religious,
or social training; often modified over time by later
reflection or experience.
Common Morality
the set of moral ideals shared by most members of a
culture or society.
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 Ethical Conflict
• What happens if one’s personal values conflict with
common morality?
– Stem cell research
– Demolishing a Mosque for a highway/road
– Designing and implementing a hanging machine

• What if one’s personal values conflict with professional

ethics?
– Contraceptives for unmarried women

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 Becoming a Professional Engineer
Understand that Engineering is a Profession
Become familiar with the Code of Ethics of
your discipline
Join Student Engineering Societies
Join other Professional Organizations

Always think of how you would like to be

treated under similar circumstances
**There’s more to being an engineer than
technical competence.**
Professional Ethics and Responsibilities 7
 Professional Ethics
 Categories: -
 Medical,
 Legal,
 Computer Engineering,
 Telecommunications Engineering,
 Accounting,
 Computer,
• …and many more.

• Q: What are the special responsibilities of

each of these professionals?
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 Computer Ethics
– Special Responsibilities Facing Computer
Professionals and Users: -
 Maintaining relationships with and
responsibilities toward customers, clients,
coworkers, employees, and employers.

 Making critical decisions that have significant

consequences for many people.

 Determining how to manage, select, or use

computers in a professional setting.
• Q: Describe an ethical scenario for one of
the categories, above. 9
 “Do the Right Thing”

–Behaving ethically includes: -

 Being honest,
 Keeping promises,
 Doing your job well, and
 Not stealing.
• Q: What other behaviors are usually
considered “doing the right thing?”
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 Ethical Guidelines for Computer Professionals
• Special aspects of professional ethics - Computer
Professionals: -
 Are experts in their field,

 Know customers rely on their knowledge, expertise, and

honesty,

 Understand their products (and related risks) affect many

people,

 Follow good professional standards and practices,

 Maintain an expected level of competence and are up-to-date

on current knowledge and technology, and
• Q: Recall a computer professional who
 Educate the non-computer professional.
demonstrated some of these characteristics.
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Ethical Guidelines for Computer Professionals
• Professional Codes

– ACM and IEEE CS -

• Software Engineering Code of Ethics and
Professional Practice

– ACM
• ACM Code of Ethics

– CIPS – Canadian Information Processing Society

• Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

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Ethical Behaviors Expected of the Computer Professional

 Honest and fair;

 Respects confidentiality;

 Maintains professional competence;

 Understands relevant laws;

 Respects and protection of personal privacy;

 Avoids harming others; and

 Respects property rights.

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 Ethics and Ethical Views
Deontological
 Emphasizes duty and absolute rules.
 Rules should apply to everyone.

 Use logic or reason to determine what is

good.
 Treat people as ends (not a means).
• Q: Describe “rules” that follow deontological
decision-making that apply to Universities.
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 Ethics and Ethical Views
 Consequentialist – Includes: -
1. Utilitarianism

 Strives to increase “utility” (that satisfies a

person’s needs and values) for the most
people (the greater good); and

 Considers the consequences for all

affected people
• Q: Describe “rules” that follow consequentialist
decision-making that apply to Universities.
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 Ethics and Ethical Views
Consequentialist – Includes: -
2. Rule-Utilitarianism
 Chooses rules or guidelines for
behavior, that generally increases utility

3. Act-Utilitarianism
 Analyzes each action to determine if it
increases utility

• Q: What are some problems with act-utilitarianism?

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 Ethics and Ethical Views
 Natural Rights
 Derived from the nature of humanity;

 Focus is on the process by which people

interact; and

 Respect the fundamental rights of others,

including life, liberty, and property
• Q: Describe an ethical scenario about use of a
computer system and tell what rights the people
involved have.
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 Ethics and Ethical Views
Reaching the Right Decision
 There is no formula to solve ethical
problems;

 The computer professional must consider

trade-offs; and

 Ethical theories help to identify important

principles or guidelines
• Q: What trade-offs might a computer professional
need to consider?
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 Ethics and Ethical Views - Distinctions
Right, Wrong, and Okay: acts may be ethically
obligatory, ethically prohibited, or ethically
acceptable
 Negative rights (liberties): the right to act
without coercive interference
 Positive rights (claim-rights): imposing an
obligation on some people to provide certain
things
 Causing harm: some acts may cause harm to
others but are not necessarily unethical
• Q: Describe an ethical scenario involving a computer
professional that illustrates one of the items above.
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 Ethics and Ethical Views - Distinctions
 Goals vs. actions: the actions we take to
achieve our goals should be consistent with
our ethical constraints

 Personal preference vs. ethics: some issues

we disapprove of because of our dislikes,
rather than on ethical grounds

 Law vs. ethics: some acts are ethical, but

illegal; other acts are legal, but unethical

• Q: Describe an ethical scenario involving a computer

professional that illustrates one of the items above.
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Professional Ethics

 What is a “profession”?
 What is “ethics”?
 What is “professional ethics”?
 Ethical theories
 Thinking about professional ethics
 Professional values
 Codes of Ethics

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Two Valid Moral Positions
 The first is “Kantianism”
 Kant: Right or wrong regardless
of consequences
 The second is “Utilitarianism”
 Utilitarianism: Right or wrong
depending on consequences
 Most people agree with both
positions
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 Profession

 All professions are occupations, but not

all occupations are professions
 Can take a broad or narrow view of what
is a “profession”
 A “self-regulated occupational group
capable of legally prohibiting others
(including incompetent or unethical
members) from practicing” is a narrow
view
 There are many “emerging professions”23
 Profession
1. Group identity
2. Shared education, training --
requirements for admission
3. Special uncommon knowledge
4. Knowledge used in the service of
others… positive social need
5. Involves individual judgment, (some)
autonomy in decisions
6. Adherence to certain values
7. Penalties for substandard performance
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 Profession
 You are not a professional until
 you are a member of a group of
colleagues
 who have articulated a set of
standards and values and
 can enforce them,

 at the very least, by exclusion from

the group

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 “Professionalism”
1. Skill, competency in work
2. Relational element – work will be
beneficial to others
 Work itself doesn’t have moral status
 Execution of work has moral status

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Recognizing when We’re in the
Realm/Kingdom of Ethics
Watch the language:
 Right and wrong
- Actions

 Good and bad

motives,
methods,

goals
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 Professional Ethics
 Purpose… Helps professional decide
when faced with a problem that raises a
moral issue

 Complexity … Can be many people, with

many issues involved … may be involved
history to the issues … may be an issue
WHO decides, not just WHAT decided.

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 Ethics and Morality
 Morality – making choices with
reasons

 Ethics – the study of HOW the

choices are made, ie “ethics is the
study of morality”

 Often use “ethics” and “morality”

interchangeably
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 General vs Professional
 General Ethics – individual as member of
community, broader range of issues, “top
down” principles

 Professional Ethics – moral expectations

specific to the occupational group, tend to
focus on concrete “bottom up” cases

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 Morality and Ethics
 Professional Morality – what we do
in our occupational lives

 Professional Ethics – the study of

what we do in our professional lives

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 Ethics and Law
 Law – the authority is external
 Ethics – the authority is internal
 Much of law, but not all, is based in
morality
 Sometimes law is unethical
 Much of what is ethical is unaddressed
by legal rules
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 Professional Ethics and Law

 There is a moral duty to obey the

law (with some warnings)
 Professional ethics covers more
issues than the law
 One can be unethical without
behaving illegally
 Rare – ethically must resist the law
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 Professional Ethics and Law
 Be very careful not to embark in an
exercise in ethical analysis when
there is a clear legal rule in the
situation that trumps the entire
process of ethical analysis.

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 Professional Ethics and Law
 Be very careful not to assume that
there is a legal rule for every
situation. Often the gaps between
legal rules require one to switch to
an ethical analysis.

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 Ethics
 Descriptive ethics – “What IS”
 Prescriptive ethics – “What OUGHT
to be”

 We do not seek to study

professional ethics as a sociologist
would, but to assist with choices
about what one ought to do.

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 Descriptive to Prescriptive
 Two very different ways of
reasoning. Descriptive, or
scientific, studies of professional
ethics help us identify issues that
need to be included in Code of
Ethics and in educational
programs. Gives us our “case
studies”.

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 Prescriptive Ethics
 “What OUGHT to be”
 The words used are different…
good-bad, right-wrong, just-unjust
 Thought processes use values,
goods, virtues, rules, ethical
theories, moral reasons, moral
explanations, and moral decisions.

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 Why the Interest in
Professional Ethics?
1. As occupations become more
specialized, the ethical issues become
more specialized
2. Professional societies have increased
efforts to establish ethical codes to
guide members
3. Increasing public scrutiny, lack of
traditional deference
4. Regulatory oversight, public protection
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 Moral Reasoning
Machinery of Prescriptive Ethics
1. Rules – e.g. “always tell the truth”

2. Values – e.g. Integrity

The two are intimately related.

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 Prescriptive Ethics
 Judgments should be
“universalizable” or “generalizable”

 Judgments should apply to like cases

and not be case-specific or subjective

 “If it applies to me now, it should apply

to anyone else in a similar position.”

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 Moral Relativism
 Ethical values are relative to time,
place and culture
 Moral beliefs are subjective and
arbitrary
 “It’s all a matter of personal
opinion”
 Decisions shift easily
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 Moral Absolutism
 Ethical values completely objective
 Unchangeable, universal, no
exceptions
 Comparatively inflexible
 Neither position tenable.

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 Objectivity
 Codes of ethics require objectivity,
which means that there are
principles and values outside of the
individual that the members of the
community share and that
individuals will be measured against.
“Thinking reasonably is thinking
morally.” - Samuel Johnson
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 Reasonable Person -- Peer
 What would the reasonable peer do
in the circumstances?
 Reasonable person: mature, sane,
sober, well-informed, well-
intentioned, open-minded, calm,
detached but empathetic …

 Reasonable peer – add expertise.

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 Moral Decisions
Reasons explain a decision:

 Reason + Reason +… = Decision

 Explanation… System of reasons

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 A Moral Reason
 Is general, not particular or
contingent
 reason, not instinct or external
authority
 not selfishness
 moral value, not economic, legal,
social value
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 Moral Explanation
 At least one of the reasons
justifying a decision is a moral
reason.

 This identifies, but does not

evaluate a moral explanation.

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 Dilemma
Explanation 1
Reason + Reason + …  Decision 1

Explanation 2
Reason + Reason + …  Decision 2

 May or may not be a MORAL dilemma

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 Non-Moral Dilemma
1. I should work late and finish the work I
promised I’d finish.

2. I should leave and go to a party because I like

parties and want to enjoy myself.

1. = universalizable, non-selfish, moral value

(integrity, responsibility, promises…)

2. = non-moral reasons and decision.

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 Moral Dilemma
Moral Explanation 1
Moral reason + reason +… = Decision 1

Moral Explanation 2
Moral reason + reason + … = Decision 2

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 Resolution of Dilemmas
 Some dilemmas are resolved because
they are not moral dilemmas.
 Some MORAL dilemmas can be resolved
through a creative third alternative that
satisfies both moral outcomes.
 Or, possible to sequentially act on each
one.
 Or, evaluation will show which is
strongest moral explanation and decision.

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 Evaluate Moral Reasons

STRONG WEAK
 relevant to decision  tends to be
 concern with irrelevant
person(s) most  not concerned
affected by decision with person(s)
 focussed on values most affected by
of central decision
importance  emphasizes
peripheral values

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 Evaluate Moral Explanations
STRONG WEAK
 use several  narrow focus
perspectives  selective concern
(consequences,  fewer values
motives, rights,
virtues, etc.)
 considers all
persons
 many values

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