ENGINEERING ETHICS Concepts and Cases This page intentionally left blank FOURTHg EDITION ENGINEERING ETHICS Concepts and Cases CHARLES E. HARRIS Texas A&M University MICHAEL S. PRITCHARD Western Michigan University MICHAEL J. RABINS Texas A&M University Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases, c 2009, 2005 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning Fourth Edition Charles E. Harris, Michael S. Pritchard, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright and Michael J. 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Rabins, PE, 1933–2007 coauthor, collaborator, friend CONTENTSg PREFACE xiii 1 Why Professional Ethics? 1 1.1 What Is a Profession? 1 A Sociological Analysis of Professionalism 2 Professions as Social Practices 4 A Socratic Account of Professionalism 4 1.2 Engineering and Professionalism 5 1.3 Two Models of Professionalism 6 The Business Model 7 The Professional Model 7 1.4 Three Types of Ethics or Morality 8 Common Morality 8 Personal Morality 9 Professional Ethics 9 1.5 The Negative Face of Engineering Ethics: Preventive Ethics 12 1.6 The Positive Face of Engineering Ethics: Aspirational Ethics 14 Good Works 15 Ordinary Positive Engineering 16 Aspirational Ethics and Professional Character: The Good Engineer 17 1.7 Cases, Cases, Cases! 18 1.8 Chapter Summary 20 2 Responsibility in Engineering 22 2.1 Introduction 23 2.2 Engineering Standards 25 –vi– Contents vii 2.3 The Standard of Care 26 2.4 Blame-Responsibility and Causation 29 2.5 Liability 31 2.6 Design Standards 34 2.7 The Range of Standards of Practice 35 2.8 The Problem of Many Hands 36 2.9 Impediments to Responsible Action 37 Self-Interest 37 Self-Deception 38 Fear 39 Ignorance 39 Egocentric Tendencies 40 Microscopic Vision 40 Uncritical Acceptance of Authority 41 Groupthink 42 2.10 Chapter Summary 43 3 Framing the Problem 47 3.1 Introduction 48 3.2 Determining the Facts 48 Known and Unknown Facts 50 Weighing the Importance of Facts 50 3.3 Clarifying Concepts 51 3.4 Application Issues 53 3.5 Common Ground 54 3.6 General Principles 57 3.7 Utilitarian Thinking 58 The Cost–Benefit Approach 58 The Act Utilitarian Approach 61 The Rule Utilitarian Approach 61 3.8 Respect for Persons 64 The Golden Rule Approach 64 The Self-Defeating Approach 66 The Rights Approach 67 3.9 Chapter Summary 69 4 Resolving Problems 71 4.1 Introduction 72 4.2 Research Involving Humans 74 viii Contents 4.3 Ethics and Design 75 4.4 Line-Drawing 80 4.5 Conflicting Values: Creative Middle Way Solutions 84 4.6 Convergence, Divergence, and Creative Middle Ways 86 4.7 Chapter Summary 87 5 The Social and Value Dimensions of Technology 90 5.1 Thinking about Technology and Society 91 Becoming a Socially Conscious Engineer 91 What Is Technology? 92 5.2 Technological Optimism: The Promise of Technology 93 5.3 Technological Pessimism: The Perils of Technology 94 Technology and Human Experience 94 Taking a Critical Attitude toward Technology 96 5.4 Computer Technology: Privacy and Social Policy 97 Privacy and Boundary-Crossing 97 Privacy versus Social Utility 98 Finding a Creative Middle Way 99 5.5 Computer Technology: Ownership of Computer Software and Public Policy 101 Should Software Be Protected? 101 How Should Software Be Protected? 102 5.6 Engineering Responsibility in Democratic Deliberation on Technology Policy 105 5.7 The Social Embeddedness of Technology 106 The Social Interaction of Technology and Society 106 Science and Technology Studies: Opening the Black Box of Technology 107 5.8 How Shall We Design? 109 Ethical Issues in Design 109 Designing for the Environment and for Human Community 110 5.9 Conclusion: Engineering as Social Experimentation 110 5.10 Chapter Summary 111 6 Trust and Reliability 115 6.1 Introduction 116 6.2 Honesty 116 6.3 Forms of Dishonesty 117 Lying 117 Deliberate Deception 118 Contents ix Withholding Information 118 Failure to Seek Out the Truth 118 6.4 Why is Dishonesty Wrong? 118 6.5 Dishonesty on Campus 120 6.6 Dishonesty in Engineering Research and Testing 122 6.7 Confidentiality 122 6.8 Intellectual Property 125 6.9 Expert Witnessing 128 6.10 Informing the Public 129 6.11 Conflicts of Interest 131 6.12 Chapter Summary 133 7 Risk and Liability in Engineering 135 7.1 Introduction 136 7.2 The Engineer’s Approach to Risk 137 Risk as the Product of the Probability and Magnitude of Harm 137 Utilitarianism and Acceptable Risk 138 Expanding the Engineering Account of Risk: The Capabilities Approach to Identifying Harm and Benefit 139 7.3 The Public’s Approach to Risk 141 Expert and Layperson: Differences in Factual Beliefs 141 ‘‘Risky’’ Situations and Acceptable Risk 142 Free and Informed Consent 143 Equity or Justice 144 7.4 The Government Regulator’s Approach to Risk 145 7.5 Communicating Risk and Public Policy 147 Communicating Risk to the Public 147 An Example of Public Policy: Building Codes 149 7.6 Difficulties in Determining the Causes and Likelihood of Harm: The Critical Attitude 150 Limitations in Detecting Failure Modes 150 Limitations Due to Tight Coupling and Complex Interactions 152 Normalizing Deviance and Self-Deception 155 7.7 The Engineer’s Liability for Risk 156 The Standards of Tort Law 156 Protecting Engineers from Liability 158 7.8 Becoming a Responsible Engineer Regarding Risk 159 7.9 Chapter Summary 161 x Contents 8 Engineers in Organizations 165 8.1 Introduction 166 8.2 Engineers and Managers: The Pessimistic Account 167 8.3 Being Morally Responsible in an Organization without Getting Hurt 169 The Importance of Organizational Culture 169 Three Types of Organizational Culture 170 Acting Ethically without Having to Make Difficult Choices 170 8.4 Proper Engineering and Management Decisions 172 Functions of Engineers and Managers 172 Paradigmatic and Nonparadigmatic Examples 174 8.5 Responsible Organizational Disobedience 176 Disobedience by Contrary Action 176 Disobedience by Nonparticipation 178 8.6 Disobedience by Protest 179 What Is Whistleblowing? 179 Whistleblowing: A Harm-Preventing Justification 179 Whistleblowing: A Complicity-Avoiding View 181 Some Practical Advice on Whistleblowing 182 8.7 Roger Boisjoly and the Challenger Disaster 183 Proper Management and Engineering Decisions 183 Whistleblowing and Organizational Loyalty 186 8.8 Chapter Summary 188 9 Engineers and the Environment 191 9.1 Introduction 192 9.2 What Do the Codes Say about the Environment? 192 9.3 The Environment in Law and Court Decisions: Cleaning Up the Environment 193 Federal Laws on the Environment 193 The Courts on the Environment 195 9.4 Criteria for a ‘‘Clean’’ Environment 196 9.5 The Progressive Attitude toward the Environment 199 Three Attitudes toward the Environment 199 Two Examples of the Progressive Attitude toward the Environment 200 9.6 Going Beyond the Law 202 How Far Does the Progressive View Go Beyond the Law? 202 What Reasons Support Adopting the Progressive Attitude? 202 Contents xi 9.7 Respect for Nature 203 Some Essential Distinctions 203 Aldo Leopold’s Nonanthropocentric Ethics 205 A Modified Nonanthropocentric Ethics 205 9.8 The Scope of Professional Engineering Obligations to the Environment 206 Should Engineers Have Environmental Obligations? 206 Two Modest Proposals 207 9.9 Chapter Summary 208 10 International Engineering Professionalism 211 10.1 Introduction 212 10.2 Ethical Resources for Solving Boundary-Crossing Problems 213 Creative Middle Ways 213 First Standard: The Golden Rule 215 Second Standard: Universal Human Rights 215