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ETHICS IN ENGINEERING PRACTICE AND RESEARCH

Second Edition

The first edition of Caroline Whitbeck’s Ethics in Engineering Practice and Researchfocused on the difficult ethical problems engineers encounter in their practice and inresearch. In many ways, these problems are like design problems: they are complex,and often ill defined; resolving them involves an iterative process of analysis andsynthesis; and there can be more than one acceptable solution. In the second editionof this text, Dr. Whitbeck goes above and beyond by featuring more real-life problems,stating recent scenarios, and laying the foundation of ethical concepts and reasoning.This book offers a real-world, problem-centered approach to engineering ethics,using a rich collection of open-ended case studies to develop skill in recognizing andaddressing ethical issues.

Caroline Whitbeck is the Emerita Elmer G. Beamer–Hubert H. Schneider Professorin Ethics at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Whitbeck teaches in both the Phi-losophy and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering departments. Her researchspans numerous fields, such as philosophy, engineering, technology, medicine, andfeminist philosophy. Dr. Whitbeck is currently the Director of The Online EthicsCenter for Engineering and Science at the National Academy of Engineering. Dr.Whitbeck has published numerous articles on bioethics and is the author of the firstedition of Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research (1998, Cambridge UniversityPress).

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ETHICS INENGINEERINGPRACTICE ANDRESEARCHSecond Edition

Caroline WhitbeckCase Western Reserve University






CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Cambridge University Press32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA

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C© Caroline Whitbeck 1998, 2011

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place without the writtenpermission of Cambridge University Press.

First edition published 1998Second edition published 2011

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data

Whitbeck, Caroline.Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research / Caroline Whitbeck. – Second edition.

p. cmIncludes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-521-89797-6 (hardback) – ISBN 978-0-521-72398-5 (paperback)1. Engineering ethics. I. Title.TA157.W47 2011174′.962–dc22 2010044633

ISBN 978-0-521-89797-6 HardbackISBN 978-0-521-72398-5 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external orthird-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content onsuch Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.






To the memory of James R. Melcher (1936–1991)






Contents

Note to Students page xiiiForeword to the First Edition by Woodie Flowers xvPreface to the First Edition xviiAcknowledgment xxiAcknowledgments to the First Edition xxiii

PART 1: VALUES AND THE EVALUATION OF ACTS IN ENGINEERING

Introduction to Ethical Reasoning and Engineer Ethics 3

Section 1. Ethics, Values, and Reason 3Values and Engineering 3Ethics in Popular Culture and in Reality 5The Perspective of This Book 6One Model of Ethics 9Moral and Amoral Agents 10

Section 2. Values and Value Judgments 11The Difference between Values and Preferences 11Opinions and Judgments 14Types of Value and Value Judgments 16Religious Value in Relation to Ethical Value 21Relations among Types of Value 22

Section 3. Ethics and Ethical Justification 23Ethical Conventionalism and Ethical Relativism(s) 24Ethical Evaluation, Justification, and Excuses for Actions 31Examples of Justifications and Excuses for Lying 32

Section 4. Interests and Consequences 35Interests and Conflicts of Interest 35Consequences: Harms, Benefits, and Risks 38Consequences for Whom? Moral Standing 42

Section 5. Moral Obligations and Moral Rules in Engineering 44Moral Obligations and Moral Rules 44Prima Facie and Absolute Obligations and Rules: The Burden

of Proof 47Negative and Positive, and Universal and Special, Obligations and

Rules 48

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Section 6. Categories of Moral (and Legal and Institutional) Rights 53Moral Rights 53Human and Special Rights 55Alienable/Inalienable and Absolute/Prima Facie Rights 58Negative/Positive Rights 64

Section 7. Rights of Privacy/Confidentiality and Intellectual Property 68Rights of Privacy and Confidentiality 68Intellectual Property Rights 71Ethics, Conscience, and the Law 74

1. Professional Practice in Engineering 77

Professions and Norms of Professional Conduct 77How Norms of Ethical Conduct Vary with Profession 79Responsibilities, Obligations, and Moral Rules in Professional Ethics 85Which Mistakes Are Culpable? 88The Autonomy of Professions and Professional Codes of Ethics 92Does Employee Status Prevent Acting as a Professional? 99The Limits of Predictability and Responsibilities of the Engineering

Profession 102Summary 103

2. Two Examples of Professional Behavior: Roger Boisjoly andWilliam LeMessurier 105

Section 1. Roger Boisjoly’s Attempts to Avert the Challenger Disaster 105Moral Lessons from Actions Intended to Forestall the Challenger

Explosion 105The Post-Flight Inspection in January 1985 107The Significance of the O-Ring Seals and Escape of Hot Gas 107Pursuing a Hypothesis about the Effect of Cold Temperature 111Stagnation in the Face of Mounting Evidence about Seal Erosion 112A Company’s Concern about Its Image 114Working with Poor Management Support 115The Day and Evening before the Challenger Flight 116Preventing Accidents 120A Note on the Challenger Disaster as a Formative Experience for

Many Engineers and for Popular Culture 120Section 2. William LeMessurier’s Handling of the “Fifty-Nine

Story Crisis” 121LeMessurier’s Innovative Design for the Citicorp Tower 122The Discovery of the Change from Welds to Bolts 124Investigating the Effects of Quartering Winds 125Wind Tunnel Evidence of the Danger 126Informing Those Who Need to Know and Mobilizing Support 127Accomplishing the Repair without Causing Panic 128The Insurer’s Response: LeMessurier’s Good Name 129

Section 3. The Mystery of the Misidentified Student 129Section 4. Comparison of the Stories of Boisjoly and LeMessurier 131






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PART 2: ENGINEERING RESPONSIBILITY

3. Ethics as Design – Doing Justice to Moral Problems 135

Design Problems 137The Design Analogy 138Four Moral Lessons from Design Problems 143Implications of the Dynamic Character of Ethical Problems 148Problems as Experienced by Agents 150Making and Assessing Ethical Judgments 151Summary and Conclusion: Improving on Excellence 153

4. Central Professional Responsibilities of Engineers 155

The Centrality of Responsibility in Professional Ethics 155Ethical Responsibility and Official Responsibility 159Trust and Responsibility 164Trustworthy Engineers/Trustworthy Professional Practice 166Character and Responsibility 168The Specific Professional Responsibilities of Engineers 170

The Emerging Consensus on the Responsibility for Safetyamong Engineers 170

Lessons from the 1979 American Airlines DC-10 Crash and the KansasCity Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse 172

“Bugs,” Glitches, and Errors as Central Concerns in SoftwareEngineering 176

Knowledge, Foresight, and Changing Criteria for Responsible Practice 178Hazards and Risks 182The Scope and Limits of Engineering Foresight 185Matching an Engineer’s Foresight with Opportunities for Influence 189Summary 191

5. Computers, Software, and Digital Information 192

What Is Different about Digital Systems and Digital Information? 192Software as Intellectual Property 195GNU/Free Software/Open Source Movement 197The Faces of “Hacking” 199The Changing Culture of Computing 201Raising Concerns in Cyberspace 205Privacy in the Information Age 206Challenges of the Information Age 208

6. Rights and Responsibilities Regarding Intellectual Property 211

Individual Credit and the Ownership of Innovation 211Copyrights, “Fair Use,” and the DMCA 213Patents and Trade Secrets 215Property Rights Contrasted with Credit for Invention or Authorship 218Patenting of Inventions Contrasted with Publication of Research 220






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Benchmarking and Reverse Engineering 222Conclusion 226

7. Workplace Rights and Responsibilities 227

Engineers and Managers 228Organizational Complaint Procedures 231Government Agencies 234

Difference of Professional Judgment within the Nuclear RegulatoryCommission (NRC) 234

Professional Judgment in the American Forestry Service 236The Hanford Nuclear Reservation 238Disagreeing with Your Supervisor 240

IEEE “Guidelines for Engineers Dissenting on Ethical Grounds” 240Employment Guidelines from Engineering and Scientific Societies 246

Organizational Control and Individual Privacy: The Biological Testingof Workers 248

Limits on Acceptable Behavior and Resources for Resolution ofProblems in a Large Corporation 253

Lockheed Martin’s Gray Matters Ethics Game 254Advice from the Texas Instruments Ethics Office 258

The Work Environment and Ethical and Legal Considerations 260Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 261U.S. Supreme Court Decision on Harris v. Forklift 262

From Overcoming Prejudice to Valuing Diversity 263Organizational Responses to Offensive Behavior and Harassment 265Ethics in a Global Context 267Conclusion 268

PART 3: RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH CONDUCT

8. Ethics in the Changing Domain of Research 273

The U.S. Government-Wide Definition of Research Misconduct 276Research Misconduct Distinguished from Mistakes and Errors 280Recent History of Attention to Research Misconduct 281Distinguishing Falsification from Legitimate “Data Selection” 284Robert Millikan’s Treatment of the Data for Determination of

Electron Charge 285The Research Misconduct Cases of Hendrik Schon and Victor Ninov 290Fabrication: From Hoaxes to “Cutting Corners” 293Self-Deception in Research Misconduct 296Honesty about Method and Results Central to Research Integrity 298Factors That Undermine Research Integrity 299The Emerging Emphasis on Understanding and Fostering Responsible

Conduct 301Responsible Authorship, Reviewing and Editing 302Conflicts of Interest in Authoring, Editing, or Reviewing Research 305






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Responsibilities in the Supervisor–Trainee (“Mentor–Mentee”)Relationship 308

Human Research Subjects/Participants 310Historical Background 310Current Requirements Governing Human Subjects/Participants 312Human Subjects/Participants in Product Testing 314The Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects/

Participants in Research 315Responsibility for Experimental Animals 318Raising Ethical Concerns in Research 322

9. Responsible Authorship and Credit in Engineering andScientific Research 324

Citation and Acknowledgment 325Authorship 327

Qualifications for Authorship 327Responsibilities of Authors 329Categories of Authors and Their Special Obligations and

Responsibilities 329Plagiarism 331Fair Sharing of Credit among Coauthors 332When Supervisors and Their Supervisees Share Authorship 334

Responsibility for Research Quality 338Authors’ Responsibility for the Quality of Their Research/Reports 338Supervisors’ Oversight of the Research of Their Trainees 338Criteria for Deciding What Credit Trainees Merit 339

Subsidiary Obligations of Authors 340Do Not Fragment Your Research Reports 340If You Republish Your Previously Published Work, Cite It 341Make Available Any Special Research Materials Used in

Reported Research 342Disclose Any Financial Conflicts of Interest 343Warn Subsequent Investigators of Any Hazards in Conducting

the Research You Report 344Disciplinary or Field Differences in Conventions for Authorship 345Crediting Others When Publishing outside of the Technical Literature 345Responsibilities of Editors and Reviewers That Authors Should Know 346

PART 4: THE FUTURE OF ENGINEERING

10. Responsibility for the Environment 351

The Rise of Ecology and New Ways of Thinking about the Environment 352Rachel Carson 352Key U.S. Environmental Legislation, 1969–1986 354The Concept of an Ecosystem 355Hazards and Risks to the Environment 356Illustration from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Case 358






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Responsible Behavior in Assessing Risk 359Ecological Thinking and the Question of Who/What Counts 361

Moral Standing and the Environment 362Some Illustrative Cases 363

The Costs of Environmental Protection: The Case of Timberingand the Northern Spotted Owl 363

The 1995 Supreme Court Decision on “Taking” of a ThreatenedSpecies 364

Acid Rain and Unforeseen Consequences of Human Action 366The Discovery of the Effects of Chlorofluorocarbons on

the Ozone Layer 367Superfund Sites and the Monitoring of Communities for Toxic

Contamination 369Love Canal 369Environmental Norms in U.S. Corporations 372From “Global Warming” to “Climate Change” 374Technological Innovation in Response to Environmental Challenges 375The Concern with Sustainability and Sustainable Development 376Summary and Conclusion 377

11. A Note on End Use and “Macro” Issues 379

The “End-Use Problem” 379What Are “Macro” Issues? 381The Use of Human Growth Hormone as an Example of an Issue

for the Whole Society 382

Epilog: Making a Life in Engineering 383

Miguel Barrientos, Building a Water Pump for Andean Alpaca Breeders 383Jim Melcher, Witnessing against Waste and Violence 386

References 389

Index 401






Note to Students

The educational goal of this book is to help prepare you for your professionalresponsibilities as engineers. It is designed to help you recognize and thinkthrough ethically significant problem situations that are common in engineeringand to evaluate the existing ethical standards for engineering practice.

The central subjects that guide this work are the ethically significant prob-lems that arise in engineering, the ethical and other values at stake in respondingto them, and the concepts necessary to clearly understand those problems andrespond to them. As a philosopher (and former mathematician) I have con-tributed conceptual clarifications necessary to understanding the ethically signif-icant problems that commonly arise in engineering and I cite useful clarificationsby others. The problems themselves are ones I have gathered from engineeringsocieties and individual engineers who have generously shared their experiencewith me. These engineers are thanked in the preface to the first edition. Althoughsome concepts, such as a conflict of interest, are common to many areas of pro-fessional ethics, engineering ethics differs from medical ethics or legal ethicsin that the ethically significant problems encountered in engineering practiceare different from those problems commonly encountered in medical or legalpractice.

As aids to learning I have added sidebars that emphasize main points, andat the beginning of each section is a query to raise issues that are helpful foryou to think through. At the end of each section is an exercise question similarif not identical to the opening query. The section will have given you help informulating at least one good answer to the question, but there may be other goodanswers, and you should feel free to give the best answer you can.

Throughout the text I have added sidebars like the one here to emphasize mainpoints because I have found some of my students benefited from such emphasis.

The goal of this book is to prepare you torecognize and think through the problemsyou will encounter as an engineer and toevaluate the existing ethical standards forengineering practice.

The definitions offered in this book are primar-ily philosophical or conceptual definitions; thatis, they show how one concept or idea is relatedto or composed of others. When a definition isoffered in this book, it appears in bold type. Youhave encountered conceptual definitions in geom-etry, which define a concept in terms of other,simpler concepts. For example: A straight line

is the shortest distance between two points. A dictionary occasionally gives a

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conceptual definition but more often will just tell you how a word is used, per-haps simply by giving a synonym for it. The conceptual definitions given hereare like those given for concepts in physics and unlike the definitions in, say, aSpanish–English–Spanish dictionary.

Throughout this book, you will find boxes with thick borders, which containbrief but complete accounts of situations that illustrate or expand on some pointdiscussed in that section of the text. Other boxes with thin borders contain open-ended problem situations to which you are asked to respond. These open-endedproblems are often based on problems that engineers and my previous engineeringstudents have found salient, perhaps because they experienced them on the job.You are asked to think about how best to respond to them both to build yourproblem-solving abilities and to help you recognize and anticipate problemsthat actually do arise in the engineering workplace. Occasionally, when somebackground information about the problem is useful but not explicitly discussedin the text, I have added that information in a section at the end titled “GettingStarted.” However, what you learn from the text is often not enough to construct acomplete response to these open-ended problem situations. When actually facedwith such a problem, you would need to interrogate both the problem and theresources available to you in that circumstance. (Such interrogation is discussedin Chapter 3, Ethics as Design.)






Foreword to the First Edition

I want to die proud of having been an engineer. Since that can happen only if weengineers behave ethically, and since I see a connection between this book andgracious professionalism, I am very enthusiastic about Dr. Whitbeck’s effort tohelp us think effectively and somewhat pragmatically about professional ethics.Everyone, professionals in particular, must expect ethically complex situationsto arise. When that happens, each of us badly needs a self-image that includesconviction that our intellect and heart can help make choices that will dramaticallyaffect the course of events. That point of view will not materialize out of the ether.It must be nurtured and encouraged. This book will help seasoned professionalsclarify their approach to their own behaviors, and this book can profoundly affectthose who face a messy situation for the first time.

Caroline’s arguments penetrate some of the fog around ethics. Most peoplethink of it as an obscure topic belonging to an elite few who can spend their livesin deep and abstract thought. Even many professors of engineering regard ethicsas a somewhat untouchable topic. “Students will never listen! Why waste our timeand theirs?” Several have argued that post–high school is too late to influencestudents’ proclivity to behave in society’s best interest. I strongly disagree. SinceI have spent most of my teaching career encouraging students to trust their owncreative abilities, I have developed a thick skin about comments like “You cannotteach creativity!” I do not debate that assertion. I think I know that one can unleashcreative behavior by ensuring that it is overtly rewarded and by providing peoplewith an assortment of “tools” that facilitate creativity. Likewise, after ten years ofknowing Dr. Whitbeck and listening to her discussions, I am convinced that onecan develop a self-image that includes self-confidence in dealing with ethicallycomplex situations. I think that self-image is part of the foundation for a roleas one of the protectors of society. It is essential to one who derives satisfactionfrom doing the thing that is right rather than easy or lucrative in the short term.

If students are told about an ethically complex situation and asked what coursethey would take if they found themselves in such a plight, they are quite likelyto argue that they should call a press conference and blow the whistle on thebastards! Only after some discussion do they start to visualize the many scenariosthat might accompany the choices made by the players. In a successfully guideddiscussion, they see that their creative and problem-solving talents are importantresources and start to propose actions that minimize damage without “sellingout.” They start to synthesize solutions rather than judge the players. Thus, asCaroline argues, there is a strong parallel between the process of design and

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xvi Foreword to the First Edition

the process that should be used to guide one through fate’s hammer-locks. The“problem” is ill-defined and resplendent with ambiguity and untruth; creativityand the wisdom to recognize what is important are critical, the iterative processof synthesis and analysis applies, and the solutions are not likely to be perfect,especially as judged by many stakeholders. One is not born comfortable withsuch a fuzzy and emotional process. Like design, one best learns it through asupervised opportunity to practice. This book provides such a guided opportunity.

The case studies provide very rich examples of successful and unsuccessfulattempts to deal with ethical complexity. They illustrate that the right path issometimes frightening and very rough. In the case of Roger Boisjoly and theChallenger disaster, he was forced to endure personal and professional persecu-tion before being recognized as a most exemplary advocate of the “right thing”in an industry obsessed with the “right stuff.” Mental experiments, classroomexercises, and personal introspection founded on Mr. Boisjoly’s incredible storycan be very productive. To borrow from the late Senator Everett Dirkson, anepiphany here, an epiphany there, and before long, we are talking real under-standing. Interaction with Caroline has helped me understand what I think aboutwhen forced to confront ethical complexity. Thankfully, my ethics and religionare very simple and grow from the notion that we should all behave in a waythat enhances the community good. I struggle with deciding the proper scope of“community.” To me it includes animals, but what about plants? My most robustobservation about “good” is that it is only a function of time until reelection, orit depends only on the time period over which the evaluation is performed. Butgiven those vagaries, I find that Dr. Whitbeck has given me a nice road map forthinking about my actions. I recommend that you enjoy this book and allow it tomake your brain hurt a bit to ensure that the message sticks. Many times, we cando well while doing good.

Woodie FlowersPapalardo Professor ofMechanical Engineering, MIT






Preface to the First Edition

Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research is about professional responsibilitiesof engineers and applied scientists. It is about professional responsibilities: thecharacter of problem situations in which those responsibilities must be fulfilledand the moral skills for fulfilling them. Interspersed throughout the text are open-ended scenarios that present ethically significant situations of the sort engineersand applied scientists commonly encounter. These have been set apart in centeredboxes to aid the use of them in group discussion and for homework assignments.Also set apart from the text, in boxes, are fine points, which may enhance thereader’s understanding but are not essential to the main argument. Most of thesefine points concern philosophical issues.

Outline and Summary

The introduction on concepts provides a clarification of many general ethicalterms and provides a general framework for considering ethical questions. Thisframework draws on readers’ prior experience of moral life and of moral reflec-tion. Other more specialized ethical concepts are introduced as needed throughoutthe book.

Chapter 1 discusses what moral problems look like to a person in the situa-tion who must respond to them. The frequent need to cope with an ambiguoussituation and to formulate responses to the problem situation shows that address-ing ethically significant problems is more demanding than simply evaluating therelative merits of preestablished responses. In many respects challenging ethicalproblems resemble challenging design problems.

Chapter 2 discusses professional responsibility and its basis and scope, andprovides comparison of engineering with other professions. (Beginning with thisone, the order of the chapters roughly corresponds to the sophistication of theirsubject matter.)

The Central Professional Responsibilities of Engineers and applied scientists,especially the responsibility for safety, is the subject of Chapter 3. Public safety,consumer safety, operator safety, occupational safety, and laboratory safety areconsidered.

Chapter 4 recounts the stories of two engineers who discharged their respon-sibility for safety in exemplary ways. Their stories are told in detail to show the

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development of the problem situation they faced and the appropriate responsesthat they made at different stages.

Chapter 5 treats workplace rights and responsibilities, focusing on engineersin corporations or governmental organizations.

Chapter 6 on the responsibility for research integrity and later chapters onresearch ethics carry over the discussion of complaint handling in Chapter 5 touniversities dealing with charges of research misconduct.

Chapter 7 examines investigators’ responsibilities for the subjects of theirresearch experiments.

Responsibility for the environment, which is the subject of Chapter 8, is foundto have a more complex basis than the responsibility for research subjects.

Chapter 9 deals with fair credit in research and scientific publication, andChapter 10 examines credit and intellectual property issues arising in engineeringpractice.

The epilog presents two stories of engineers who went beyond fulfilling theirprofessional responsibilities to incorporating their values and aspirations intotheir work as engineers.

Order of Topics and Use in Courses

The interested engineer, scientist, or scholar may wish to begin by reading theentire Introduction or by simply skipping it. A detailed table of contents isprovided as an aid for the general reader who wishes to read selectively, althougheach chapter does build on previous chapters.

If this book is to be used as a course text, the sections of the Introductionare best considered in concert with the early chapters. For example, Part 3 ofthe Introduction, on moral character and moral responsibility, is well consideredin conjunction with the substantive discussion of professional responsibility andthe engineer’s responsibility for safety in Chapter 2 or 3. (A scheme for usingthe book in a single course is provided in the syllabus for Real World Ethics,one of the courses in engineering ethics available through the WWW EthicsCenter for Engineering and Science (http://ethics.cwru.edu).) Cases and materialsmarked with “www” may be found in the WWW Ethics Center. The book doesnot presuppose any particular prior course of study, and its early chapters areaccessible to all undergraduates.

Because the book provides a coherent guide to many topics within engineeringand research ethics, it is suited to unifying the educational experience of engineer-ing and science students who are learning engineering ethics by the “pervasivemethod,” that is, having topics in engineering ethics and research ethics includedin their science and engineering courses. Used for pervasive ethics education,Chapters 2 through 4, together with related case materials on the worldwide web(WWW) and available on videotape, are suitable for use with first- and second-year students. The remainder of the book is best used in upper-level undergraduateand graduate courses.

When the book is to be used as a primary text in a freestanding course inengineering ethics or research ethics, it should be a course for upper-level or






xix Preface to the First Edition

graduate students. Students will best understand the issues if they have someexperience handling complex responsibilities. Many students enter college withsuch experience, but not all do. Summer work experience often provides a veryuseful experience on which to draw in class discussion.

The only topic I regularly address in my own undergraduate course that I haveomitted from the book is the topic of academic honesty. I have omitted it becauseof my commitment to active learning and the realization that the most effectiveapproach to active learning about academic honesty requires linking problemsand cases to specific policies and issues on one’s campus. For example, wherethere is an honor code, it will be important to examine how that functions. If thereis a student court, then it may be appropriate to spend some time on questionsof procedural justice. Academic honesty is one of the first topics to cover inthe pervasive method of teaching professional ethics. I find that the subjectof research ethics provides a useful reprise for upper-class undergraduates andgraduate students on such topics as plagiarism.

An appendix to this book discusses several major trends in philosophical ethicssince 1980. To spare student readers the added expense of a larger book with anappendix that few of them would actually read, I have placed the appendix on theWWW. Engineers, scientists, philosophers, and social scientists who are inter-ested in an explicit discussion of the philosophical position underlying this bookwill find it there. Here I will simply say that active learning in professional ethicsshould involve students in hands-on/minds-on learning. Students should learnhow to reflectively consider moral problems and moral standards and examinesuch standards with others of diverse backgrounds. Philosophical work on topicssuch as trust, responsibility, and harm is useful in such reflection, but theoriesabout how one might found ethics on reason alone are best reserved for courses inthe history of philosophical ethics. [In practice, what often happens when termssuch as “utilitarian” or “rights theory” are introduced in courses in professionalethics is that students get the ludicrous impression that they are expected tochoose between considering consequences and rights (or duties or considerationsof virtue) in making ethical assessments.] The view that the reflection that differ-entiates ethics from mere custom is social reflection, and that it is carried out withrespect to particular problems and issues, rather than being the reflection of a lonescholar who considers action in the abstract, finds support in the challenges thatmany of the most distinguished philosophers recently have offered to the abstractand detached model of philosophical reflection. Annette Baier summarizes someof those challenges in the following terms:

Bernard Williams and Thomas Nagel have both in their recent books1 raised thequestion of what philosophical reflection [that is, detached, abstract consideration],especially that which Hume called “a distant view or reflexion” (T 538), does towhat Williams calls our “confidence” in ourselves and our mores, and our personalprojects and commitments. Is what Nagel calls “objective engagement” a realpossibility for us, or will the attempt to be detached and reflective have the effect

1Williams, Bernard. 1985. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Uni-versity Press; Nagel, Thomas. 1986. The View from Nowhere. New York: Oxford UniversityPress.






xx Preface to the First Edition

of detaching us from all engagements, destroying our confidence in any project,making all our concerns seem “absurd”? Will the philosophically examined lifebe found to remain worth living? Williams says “the ideal of transparency andthe demand that our ethical practice should be able to stand up to reflection donot demand total explicitness, or a reflection that aims to lay everything bare atonce . . . I must deliberate from what I am. Truthfulness requires trust in that aswell, and not the obsessional and doomed drive to eliminate it” (p. 200). Though Iwelcome Williams’s emphasis on the importance and fragility of confidence, andhis reminder of the close link between the trusty and the true, I would amend hisstatement to “we must deliberate from where we are”; for, as he himself emphasizes,confidence and trust are social achievements. We may be able more successfullyto combine self-trust with explicitness and reflectiveness if we can abandon the“forelorn solitude” of that singular philosophical thought which turns each of usinto “a strange uncouth monster” (T 264) and incorporate into our philosophicalreflections on morality more of the social and motivational resources of moralityitself. For our form of life to be able to “bear its own survey” (T 620), maybe boththe life and the method of surveying will have to change.2

2Baier, Annette. 1986. “Extending the Limits of Moral Theory,” Journal of Philosophy 77: 538–545.






Acknowledgment

This second edition includes material supported by the National Science Foun-dation under Grant No. 0428597.

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Acknowledgments to the First Edition

Many people have contributed to my understanding of engineering ethics andresearch ethics and to the writing of this book. First are the faculty with whomI have taught, especially Stephanie Bird, Larry Bucciarelli, Peter Elias, WoodieFlowers, Nelson Kiang, Albert Meyer, Igor Paul, Steve Senturia, Tom Sheridan,Leon Trilling, and guest lecturers in several courses: Stephen Chen, RandallDavis, Stephen Fairfax, Yolanda Harris, J. J. Jackson, Vera Kistiakowsky, FreadaKlein, Mark Kramer, Elizabeth Krodel, Judith Lachman, Jenny Lee McFarland,Richard Petrasso, Steve Robbins, Andrew Rowan, Mary Rowe, Susan Santos,Gerald Schneider, David G. Wilson, and the students in my courses, some ofwhose scenarios appear in this book and whose projects are available on theWWW.

I also thank the many people who aided the effort to teach engineering ethicsat MIT and in the larger community: Mildred Dresselhaus, Hermann Haus, JackKerrebrock, Robert W. Mann, Paul Penfield, Sheila Widnall, and David Wormley.

Thanks to Kathryn Addelson, Pamela Banks, Stanley Hauerwas, JenniferMarshall, David Neelon, Helen Nissenbaum, Aarne Vesilind, and David GordonWilson, who criticized parts of the manuscript; to Djuna Copley-Woods whodrew the diagrams; and to the students in my Real World Ethics class in thespring terms of 1995, 1996, and 1997 who gave responses to it as a text.

I especially thank my wise and tender husband, David Neelon, for the surepleasure of his company throughout this work.

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