Qu'est-ce que l'éthique?

Ethics

Objectives:

1. What are ethics?

2. What ethical theories and frameworks can impact our analysis of ethical behavior

examples to demonstrate these frameworks you are already learning

3. Professional ethics

“Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties.” ASCE Code of Ethics

1. What are ethics?

Ethics: a set of values or group of moral principles that are right and good

a code or principles of behavior or conduct governing an individual or group

Engineering Ethics: activity or discipline aimed at understanding the moral values that should guide engineering practice

(only since late 1970s has systematic attention to ethics been devoted by engineers and others, as spurred by a national engineering ethics project sponsored by the U.S. Government (NSF, NEH) in 1978-1980)

Why study ethics? to increase your ability as engineers to responsibly confront moral issues raised by technological activity

not always in short term best interest, and bring long-term into decision making

ethics are imprecise, complex, and in a given situation may conflict

vague = which moral considerations to apply to a situation and in what “hierarchy”

conflicting moral reasons are common, resulting in a moral dilemma

disagreement over how to interpret, apply, and balance moral reasons in particular situations

Illustrative “Thinking” Exercise

You and your best friend graduate from high school and decide to take a cruise the summer before starting college at Yale University in the fall. While on the boat, tragedy strikes and the boat begins to sink. Your friend is severely injured, but you both manage to get into a life boat. You float in the ocean, with only a little water and sharks circling. Your friends asks you to promise that if for some reason you are rescued that you will see that all their money is donated to the local Country Club. You agree. Your friend dies, and as you wait to die you begin to see life differently. By a miracle, an oil tanker rescues you. You make it back, but decide to donate the money to the Burn Ward at the local children’s hospital instead. Was your decision ethical?

Why or why not?

Questions to ask yourself to determine “Is a Decision Ethical?”

Is it legal? Does it conform to policies and codes? Is it honest?

Does it pass the benefit/harm test? Whom does it harm? Whom does it benefit?

Can these be justified? -> cost/benefit analysis; risk assessment

Does it treat everyone equally? equitably? If not, can the differences be justified?

(think about affirmative action, American Disabilities Act)

Does it deny anyone his or her rights? (sometimes these collide?)

Can I live with my decision? Does it rest comfortably on my conscience?

Can it pass the test of public scrutiny? Could I disclose it fully without hesitation to my supervisor, my family, or to a reporter from the New York Times?

do ethical principles apply to non-humans?

Environmental Ethics - Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic: “A thing is right when...”

The Valdez Principles: to modify company policies to incorporate environmental ethic

2. Ethical theories and frameworks that can impact an analysis of ethical behavior

examples to demonstrate these frameworks you are already learning

Four Principal Ethical Theories:

1. Rights Ethics - act is morally right when it respects rights relevant to a situation

Examples: rights for “life, liberty, pursuit of happiness”

other rights: private property, privacy, freedom of speech, fair trial, ...

human rights and non-human rights?

2. Duty Ethics - act it right when it conforms with duties

Examples: uphold promise, be fair, respect personal freedom

duty to protect the weak, duty to comply with laws, ...?

duty to do job to best of ability

3. Utilitarianism - right action consists entirely in producing good consequences

Interpretation: good intentions, outcomes, results; “ends justify means”

Example: most good for most people is optimal

4. Virtue Ethics - persons are morally good when their character is virtuous and expressed in action, attitude, and relationships (oldest, prominent in classical Greek thought and religion). Example Virtues: honesty, fairness, conscientiousness, etc.

Note that you may or may not agree with all of the above ethical theories. More specifically, you may generally agree with the overall theory, but individuals often disagree about what are specific rights, duties, and virtues.

Four Secondary Theories:

1. Ethical Egoism - act is correct when it maximizes one’s own interests

2. Corporate Egoism - act is acceptable when it maximizes the interest of a corporation

3. Ethical Relativism - act is right when it is approved by a group (conforms to laws)

4. Divine-command ethics - act is correct when it is approved by God

Situational ethics vs Absolutism

Situational ethics means that depending on the specific

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