Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Foreword
- INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL CONCEPTS
- 1 ETHICS AS DESIGN: DOING JUSTICE TO ETHICAL PROBLEMS
- 2 THE BASIS AND SCOPE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
- 3 CENTRAL PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF ENGINEERS
- 4 TWO MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR: ROGER BOISJOLY AND THE CHALLENGER, WILLIAM LEMESSURIER'S FIFTY-NINE STORY CRISIS
- 5 WORKPLACE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- 6 RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESEARCH INTEGRITY
- 7 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF INVESTIGATORS FOR EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS
- 8 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
- 9 FAIR CREDIT IN RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION
- 10 CREDIT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN ENGINEERING PRACTICE
- EPILOG: MAKING A LIFE IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE
- Bibliography and References
- Index
2 - THE BASIS AND SCOPE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Foreword
- INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL CONCEPTS
- 1 ETHICS AS DESIGN: DOING JUSTICE TO ETHICAL PROBLEMS
- 2 THE BASIS AND SCOPE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
- 3 CENTRAL PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF ENGINEERS
- 4 TWO MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR: ROGER BOISJOLY AND THE CHALLENGER, WILLIAM LEMESSURIER'S FIFTY-NINE STORY CRISIS
- 5 WORKPLACE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- 6 RESPONSIBILITY FOR RESEARCH INTEGRITY
- 7 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF INVESTIGATORS FOR EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS
- 8 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
- 9 FAIR CREDIT IN RESEARCH AND PUBLICATION
- 10 CREDIT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN ENGINEERING PRACTICE
- EPILOG: MAKING A LIFE IN ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE
- Bibliography and References
- Index
Summary
PROFESSIONS AND NORMS OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
Professions are those occupations that both require advanced study and mastery of a specialized body of knowledge and undertake to promote, ensure, or safeguard some matter that significantly affects others' well-being. This chapter will examine the norms and standards of responsible conduct in professional practice. Ethical (and sometimes legal) requirements also exist on the practices of nonprofessionals whose work immediately affects the public good, of course. For example, food handlers are bound by sanitary rules. Furthermore, many moral rules apply equally in all work contexts. All workers have an ethical obligation not to deceive their clients or customers, for example. What is distinctive about the ethical demands professions make on their practitioners is the combination of the responsibility for some aspect of others' well-being and complexity of the knowledge and information that they must integrate in acting to promote that well-being.
Moral rules, such as the one against deception, are important, but professional responsibilities cannot be captured in such rules. Fulfilling professional responsibilities requires more than rule following. Fulfilling a responsibility requires some maturity of judgment. The expressions “the age of responsibility” or “the age of discretion” acknowledge the maturity of judgment required to take on responsibilities. Carrying out a responsibility requires making complex judgments that integrate a variety of considerations in deciding how best to achieve certain ends, such as safety.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research , pp. 74 - 107Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998