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Introduction to Ethical Reasoning and Engineer Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Caroline Whitbeck
Caroline Whitbeck
Affiliation:
Case Western Reserve University, Ohio
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Summary

Ethics, Values, and Reason

What makes a good engineer and good engineering? What values underlie engineering practice today? Which of those values are specifically ethical values? What is the experience of living by those values and working in a society and in organizations that trust you to practice those values? How do these values reflect and affect the person you are and the person you become by practicing them?

This book will help you answer those questions. To answer them requires an understanding of values and value judgments in general and ethical values and ethical judgments in particular.

Societies, especially technologically developed democracies, place trust in professions and the members of professions, such as engineers (including computer professionals). In this book, we will examine what is entrusted to engineers (and computer professionals), together with the factors that created and continue to mold the expectations ingredient in that trust, and what is necessary for engineers and computer scientists to be worthy of that trust. We will consider morally significant problems that arise in engineering and computer fields, and what constitutes fulfilling the trust placed in those professionals. We will also examine the features of work environments that support the fulfillment of that trust.

Type
Chapter
Information
Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research , pp. 3 - 76
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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References

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