Transcript ETHICS LAST CLASS

ENGINEERING
PROFESSIONALISM AND
ETHICS
EGN 4034
FALL 2008
CHAPTER 3-4
Organizing Principles
CHAPTER 3-4
LEARING OBJECTIVES
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Students should be able to:
Understand the two main branches of
philosophy
 Understand the subdisciplines within
these two main branches
 Develop an understanding of how to
apply “philosophical tests” in
addressing engineering ethical
problems
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
THE TWO MAJOR BRANCHES OF
PHILOSOPHY
UTILITARIANISM
 RESPECT FOR PERSONS
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(Deontology)
CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
UTILITARIANISM
 Favors bringing about the greatest
total amount of good that we can.
 Problem:
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Define the most good (utility)
 Define the audience over which the
good is maximized.
 It can perpetrate injustice on
individuals.
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches
 Cost/Benefit
 Q – What might be an example of
cost/benefit?
 Act Utilitarianism
 Rule Utilitarianism
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches
 Cost/Benefit
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Tries to make the benefit quantifiable by:
 Assessing the available options
 Assess the costs and benefits of each
option.
 Choose the option that is likely to provide
the most benefit.
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches
 Cost/Benefit Problems
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Assumes that economic measures of cost
and benefit override other considerations.
 Q – What might be other considerations?
 Difficulty with ascertaining the costs and
benefits of the many factors (human life)
 Does not take into account the unequal
distribution of costs and benefits.
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches
 Act Utilitarianism
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Decide on the different possible courses of
action (The Act)
 Determine the audience
 Decide on which course of action is likely to
bring about the greatest good for the
appropriate audience, taking into account
harms as well as benefits.
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Utilitarian Thinking
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Three Utilitarian Approaches
Rule Utilitarianism
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Define specific rules by:
Asking, “would utility be maximized if everyone did
the same thing under similar circumstances?”
Example – rules for the road.
When rules are reasonably well understood and
generally accepted, we should use the rules as a
guide to action rather than to try to calculate the
likely consequences.
CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Ethics of Respect for Persons
“those actions or rules are right that, if
followed, would accord equal respect to
each person as a moral agent.”
 Moral agents are those persons capable
of formulating or pursuing goals and
purposes of their own.
 Persons, as moral agents, are not to be
treated as mere means to fulfilling the
ends or goals of others.
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Ethics of Respect for Persons
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Golden Rule
Basically the Universality principle
 Resolution of a moral issue must be one
that would be universally acceptable if
others resolved similar issues in similar
ways.
 Understandably, both Utilitarianism and
Respect for Persons ethics employ this
principle.
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Ethics of Respect for Persons
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Self-Defeating Test
Another application of the universalizability
principle.
 “Would I be able to perform the same action
in the same or similar circumstances if
everyone else performed the same action in
the same or similar circumstances”
 What is an example of such an act that
would be “self-defeating?”
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Ethics of Respect for Persons
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Rights Test
Because Rights can sometimes conflict, a
system of priority must be given to
individual rights.
 Q - What is an example of conflicting rights?
 Similar to the Rule Utilitarian test, the
Rights Test applies a list of universal rights
arranged in a hierarchy of importance.
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Convergence, Divergence, and Creative
Middle Way
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Convergence – although Utilitarian and
Respect for Persons standards are different,
they often lead to the same conclusion.
What does convergence do for us?
It strengthens our conclusions because they
are supported by more than one kind of basic
reasoning (both utilitarian and RP).
CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Convergence, Divergence, and Creative
Middle Way
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Divergence – applying both Utilitarian and
Respect for Persons standards can also lead
to different conclusions.
What does divergence do for us?
It may be telling us that neither of these
standards is individually the better conclusion.
And that the better solution may be a “creative
middle way.”
CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Convergence, Divergence, and Creative
Middle Way
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We have seen application of the creative
middle way in Chapter 3 using line-drawings.
Creative Middle Way solutions are best used
when we have conflict problems that deal with
a hard choice between ethical standards.
What can you think of that might illustrate
when a creative middle way is used?
What about national politics? Don’t politicians
compromise on most issues in order to keep
our political processes moving?
CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
We now have Ethical Principles we
can apply in making ethical choices.
 Utilitarianism (three tests)
 Respect for Persons (three tests)
 And always a middle ground between
conflicting ethical principles or
standards.
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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Utilitarian Thinking
Three Utilitarian Approaches
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Ethics of Respect for Persons
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Cost/Benefit
Act Utilitarianism
Rule Utilitarianism
Golden Rule
Self-Defeating Test
Rights Test
Convergence, Divergence, and Creative
Middle Way
CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
Utilitarian Thinking
 Consider the Location of the landfill
by engineer David Parkinson
 What is David’s dilemma?
 Where to locate the landfill
 Why has this become a problem?
 Special interest groups opposition
 What should David do?
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CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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David needs to make a “good engineering
decision”
How can he do this?
He could check his code of ethics
(p. 376) Read “Fundamental Cannons”
What else could he do?
He could apply a creative middle way
solution as we read about in chapter 3
What else could he do?
He could apply an ethical principle
CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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What ethical principle(s) could he apply?
Utilitarianism or Respect for persons
Or possibly some combination of these
two
He could apply a “creative middle way”
solution.
We must now begin to think of the tools
available to us when we confront ethical
problems.
BASIC PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION
WHAT IS
HAPPINESS
CHAPTER 3-4 –Organizing Principles
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THIS IS A BASIC QUESTION FROM
PHILOSOPHY
SINCE THE EARLY GREEKS THIS HAS
BEEN THE BURNING QUESTION
IN YOUR GROUPS
DEFINE HAPPINESS
GROUP # ? WILL BE THE SCRIBE
I WILL CALL ON GROUPS TO GIVE YOUR
RESPONSE