Title

Engineering Ethics: A Cross-Cultural Approach

Abstract Course

Ethical reflections applied to engineering are a lot more recent than those applied to other professional activities. Nevertheless, there is a subject called “engineering ethics”. Established as an autonomous field of academic research in the United States at the end of the 1970s (Baum 1978, Schaub&Pavlovic 1983, Johnson 1991), it has since developed in other countries, starting with those where professional organizations had already been publishing codes of ethics (Racine et al 1991, Andrew&Kemper 1992). The first one was adopted in the United Kingdom in 1910 by the Institute of Civil Engineers. It was followed by many others in the US and a few in some other countries. But while the codes are discussed and regularly amended in the American associations who adopted them, in other places they sometimes just “exist”(Didier 2015). While some observers question their theoretical foundations and methods, others simply doubt that engineers’ professional activities may raise specific ethical questions. Thus, nobody seems to be surprised when philosophers and ethicists question certain aspects of technological development; technological development that is barely imaginable in the absence of engineers. (Mitcham 1994, Goujon et al. 2001) Here are two established facts: first, technological development brings up ethical questions; second, engineers contribute, by definition, to the existence and deployment of these techniques. For some authors, this confrontation compels us to question engineering ethically (Martin 1983, Harris et al 1995). For others, the ethical challenge of these techniques does not concern engineers.

In this contribution, I will first say a few words about the concept of engineering ethics, which is sometimes hard to translate into languages other than English, and to be understood in other cultural contexts than those which developed under Anglo-American influence (Didier 2010a). Then, I will try to identify the specific characteristics of engineering as a type of human activity. Finally, I will go back to the engineers. If they are not the only ones concerned with engineering ethics, what can be said about their individual and collective moral responsibility? What can be done to improve and enhance engineers’ awareness towards ethical challenges of their profession? (Bégin 2006, Didier&Derouet 2013).

References

• Andrew Gordon C, Kemper John D (1992) Canadian Professional Engineering Practice and Ethics. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Canada
• Baum  Robert J. (1980) Ethics and Engineering Curricula. The Teaching of Ethics VII, The Hastings Center, Hastings-on-Hudson
• Bégin L (2006) Professionnalisme et éthique dans la formation des futurs ingénieurs au Québec. OCDE Colloque annuel du Programme de l’enseignement supérieur, IMHE 

• Christensen S H, Didier C, Jamison A,  Meganck M, Mitcham C, Newberry B (eds.) (2015) Engineering Identities, Epistemologies and Values, Springer
• Didier C (2008) Penser l’éthique des ingénieurs, Presses Universitaires de France
• Didier C (2010a) “Professional Ethics without a Profession. A French view of Engineering Ethics” in: Goldberg D, van de Poel I (eds). Philosophy and Engineering. An emerging Agenda, Springer, Dordrecht, pp. 161-174
• Didier C (2010a) “Les ingénieurs et l’éthique professionnelle : pour une approche comparative de la déontologie” In: Demazière D, Gadéa C (eds). Sociologie des groupes professionnels. La Découverte, pp. 208-218
• Didier C, Derouet A (2013) « Social Responsibility in Engineering Education in France: a Sociological and Historical Analysis » In: Science and Engineering Ethics, 19(4), pp. 1577-1588
• Didier C (2015) "Engineering Ethics: European Perspectives" In: Holbrook B J (ed) Ethics, Science, Technology, and Engineering: A Global Resource. Macmillan Reference USA, Farmington Hills, MI, pp. 87-90
• Didier C (2015) « Foreword » In: Sundar Sethy S (ed). Contemporary Ethical Issues in Engineering. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, pp. xvi-xxi
• Goujon P, Hériard Dubreuil B (ed) (2001) Technology and Ethics, A European Quest for Responsible Engineering. Peeters, Bruxelles
• Harris C E jr, Pritchard  M S, Rabins M J (1995) Engineering Ethics. Concepts and Cases. Wadsworth Publishing company, Belmont
• Johnson D G (1991) Ethical Issues in Engineering, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs
• Martin M W., Schinzinger R (1983) Ethics in Engineering. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York
• Mitcham C (1994) Thinking through Technology. The Path between Engineering and Philosophy, The University Chicago Press, Chicago
• Racine L, Legault G A, Bégin L (1991) Ethique et ingénierie. Mac-Graw Hill, Montréal
• Schaub J, Pavlovic K (eds) (1983) Engineering Professionalism and Ethics, John Wiley Son

Contact

christelle.didier@univ-lille3.fr