Engineering Ethics, also known as Engineer Ethics, is the study of the moral principles and behavioral norms of engineers and technicians (including technicians, assistant engineers, engineers, and senior engineers) in engineering activities, including engineering design and construction, as well as the operation and maintenance of engineering. This is a new field of applied ethics. It is derived from "engineering issues". These issues to the moral height, not only help to improve the moral quality and moral level of engineers and technicians; but also help to ensure the quality of the project, to maximize the avoidance of engineering risks.
Development of Engineering Ethics
Increasing Concerns in the 19th Century
As the 19th century continued to evolve, engineering evolved into a specialized profession, and most engineers considered themselves to be either independent professionals or skilled employees of large corporations. A considerable degree of tension arose between large business owners struggling to maintain the inherent relationship between labor and management.
In the United States, as industry developed and commerce flourished, more and more people chose to pursue careers as engineers, making the creation of unions of their peers a priority. In that period, four major engineering associations developed: the American Society of Civil Engineers (American Society of Civil Engineers, ASCE, 1851), the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (American Institute of Electrical Engineers, AIEE, 1884), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME, 1880), and American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME, 1871), most of the members of ASCE and AIEE were learned and proficient professionals. ASCE and AIEE are mostly learned and proficient professional engineers, while some members of ASME and almost all members of AIME are technical engineer employees.
During that period, ethics were often considered to be related to personal responsibility and honor and should not be explicitly defined.
The 20th Century Turning Point
Toward the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, a series of major structural damage events occurred, including some spectacular bridge damage, of particular note being the Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (1876), the Tay Bridge Disaster ( Tay Bridge Disaster, 1879), and the Quebec Bridge Disaster (1879). These disasters have had a profound impact on engineers, forcing the profession to actively confront any shortcomings in technical and construction work, and to critically consider whether ethical standards are flawed.
In response to these shocks, three of the four societies of engineers mentioned earlier developed codes of ethics, AIEE in 1912, ASCE and ASME in 1914, and AIME, which has not adopted any code of ethics in its history.
As a result of concerns about professional behavior and the preservation of public safety, typically highlighted by such accidents as the bridge collapses and the Boston molasses disaster (1919), a movement that had been underway for some time gained traction by requiring engineers to be formally accredited before they could work in their field of expertise. This certification process involved meeting certain conditions regarding professional education, practical experience, and examination review.
In the decades that followed, most U.S. state and Canadian provincial governments issued regulations requiring engineers to be licensed to practice or passed special legislation giving unions of their peers the power to issue titles. The Canadian model requires engineers to be licensed if their field of work may pose any risk to life, health, property, public **** welfare, or the environment. Within a few short years after 1950, all provincial governments began to strictly enforce this requirement.
The U.S. model usually requires licenses only for engineers who work independently, but not for those who work for large corporations, educational institutions, or government agencies. This continues the previously mentioned split between working independently or in a large organization. Professional societies usually adopt a regularized code of ethics. On the other side of the spectrum, technical societies generally do not do this, and instead organize ethics education and share ethics resources on a regular basis, with automatic or mandatory participation by their members. Is this way irregular, for should it be more in favor of the general public, or the employer? In large corporations, and sometimes in professional behavior, that question remains unanswered.
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Efforts to promote ethical behavior continue, and in addition to the efforts of peer unions and chartered organizations to reach out to their members, the Canadian Order of Engineers and the U.S. Order of the Engineer both trace their roots to the Quebec bridge collapse of 1907. They both require members to take a vow of ethical behavior and wear symbolic rings to remind them of their commitment to maintaining the highest ethical standards and professional attitudes.
In the United States, the National Society of Professional Engineers published its "Canons of Ethics for Engineers" in 1946 and its "Code of Ethics for Engineers" in 1946. In the United States, the National Society of Professional Engineers published its "Canons of Ethics for Engineers" in 1946 and adopted the "Rules of Professional Conduct" as an appendix in 1957. The Code of Ethics, which was formally adopted in 1964 and is still in force today, also evolved from this document. There is a great deal to be learned about the proper application of these rules in a variety of situations, and in 1954, an Ethics Review Committee was formed to guide members on how to comply with the rules. Ethics cases are often complex and rarely have simple answers, but the Ethics Review Committee has close to 500 advisory opinions on file that can help engineers deal with ethical dilemmas.
Today, professional societies and business groups around the world are able to deal directly and effectively with bribery and corruption. However, there are new issues that need to be addressed, such as off shoring, sustainable development, and environmental protection.
Principles of Engineering Ethics[1]
No matter what people think about the ethical conflicts in engineering practice, and no matter whether engineering ethics is practical ethics or applied ethics, engineering ethics always has to face the ethical conflicts in engineering practice and solve the problems. In the face of the complexity of specific problems and their contexts, as well as the diversity of ethical views and values, what plays an important role is the ethical principles. In short, engineering ethics is the study of moral principles and behavioral norms of engineers and technicians in engineering activities. The main research task of engineering ethics is to explore and formulate the basic principles of engineering ethics, the more far-reaching ethical principles are not conducive to the measurement of specific issues, such as "engineering for the benefit of mankind", etc.; the more specific ethical principles do not have universality, and a specific principle may no longer be applicable after the scene of time and space is changed. The principle of a discipline is the more universal the better, while as a highly practical engineering ethics and the more targeted the better, because it has to face the vivid engineering practice and solve specific problems. This puts the formulation of engineering ethics principles in an awkward situation, and scholars have been struggling to find a balance between the two.
China's engineering ethical principles were born out of technological ethical principles. 1999, when China's engineering ethics was still in the baggage of science and technology ethics, Xu Shaojin saw the value of the independence of technological ethics, and advocated to separate technological ethics from science and technology ethics, and to take technological humanitarianism, technological patriotism, technological public interest, harmony between human and nature, and equality and reciprocity within the subject of technology, as the key elements of people's work in the field of technology, as well as the principle of equality and reciprocity between human and nature. It is advocated that technological humanitarianism, technological patriotism, technological public interest, harmony between man and nature, and equality and reciprocity within the subject of technology should be taken as the ethical principles, norms, and ethical value goals to be followed by people in engaging in technical activities. In the following year, Gan Shaoping put forward three basic principles of science and technology ethics in the December 15 issue of Science and Technology Daily, i.e., do no harm, equality and respect for the right to self-determination, and combined with examples to give the order of these three principles in terms of the scope of application and importance. This should be the prelude to the principles of engineering ethics in China, and since the publication of Xiao Ping's Engineering Ethics in 1999, the exploration of engineering ethics principles has begun in China's academic circles. China's engineering ethical principles have roughly gone through a journey from abstraction to concreteness, from putting forward engineering ethical principles in a novel way to putting forward engineering ethical principles while also exploring the limited nature of their use, and combining abstract ethical principles with concrete engineering practices. In general, there are three proposed types of engineering ethical principles defined in China. One is proposed from engineering itself. Xiao Ping firstly took humanitarianism as the first principle of engineering ethics, and in 2001, the National Symposium on Ethics of Science and Technology proposed four ethical norms of engineering ethics: norms of responsibility, including the responsibility of decision-makers, designers, contractors, and everyone should be responsible; norms of fairness, i.e., the distribution of benefits should be fair; norms of safety, including the safety of engineering design and ecological safety; norms of risk, i.e., the adequate allocation of benefits; norms of security, including the safety of engineering design and ecological safety; and norms of risk, i.e., the adequate allocation of benefits. ; Risk norms, that is, fully take into account the engineering construction of all kinds of risk, and make the corresponding preventive measures. The following year, Yu Mouchang also clearly put forward the main ethical norms of engineering ethics is responsibility, fairness, safety, risk. Secondly, it is proposed from the perspective of engineer's profession. Although Zhu Baowei did not explicitly put forward any engineering ethics principles, he clearly believed that quality and safety, honesty, integrity and fairness are the most important principles of professional ethics for engineers, and wrote another article to prove it. Thirdly, it is proposed from a certain range of conditions. Ning Xiansheng and others believe that the engineering ethical code should contain the principle of human-centeredness, the principle of caring for life, the principle of safety and reliability, the principle of caring for nature, the principle of fairness and justice, and deliberately affirms that the above are only some universal principles, and that the engineering ethical code should be more specific in some specific fields of engineering and technology. This shows that our scholars have entered the stage of recognizing the universality and specificity of the engineering ethics principles. Other scholars think about the process of formulating the ethical code of the Valencia Industrial Engineers' Official Association and its inspiration for the construction of engineering ethics in China, such as the need to analyze the culture and situation before formulating the engineering ethical code; other scholars not only put forward the ethical principles that should be followed by the engineers and technicians - the first principle of human bioethics, the principle of high efficiency, the principle of public interest first - but also analyze the formation of these principles. -They also analyze the historical process of the formation of these principles. This shows that the construction of engineering ethics principles in China has stepped out of the stage of "filling in the gaps" and "making new innovations", and has entered the stage of research at a deeper level.
Practical approach to engineering ethics[1]
There is little research on the practical approach to engineering ethics in the academic world. The reason is simple: it is easier to reason than to do. What's more, for engineering ethics, "reasoning" is not easy - the whole discipline is still in the initial development period in China.
The few studies on the practical approaches to engineering ethics are of two kinds: metaphysical and sub-metaphysical. Metaphysical is the spirit in which we are required to practice engineering ethics, and metaphysical is the exploration of how we apply engineering ethics in different aspects of engineering practice. As a discipline imported from the West, engineering ethics is like a flower and tree, culture is like air and sunshine, and national conditions are like soil and water. A flower and tree are nurtured by one side of the soil and water, and when transplanting it, it is necessary to bring along the "original soil" and try to create environmental conditions close to the original growth. Zhang Yongqiang and others take the spirit of contract and humanitarianism as the "original soil" - when the effect of the project affects the public interest or fundamental interests of all mankind, and the law and specific ethical norms are unable to constrain the behavior of these projects, the spirit of contract can be used as the ultimate spiritual binding force to emphasize the importance of humanitarianism in the implementation of the project. When the law and specific ethical norms are unable to restrain these engineering behaviors, the spirit of contract can be taken as the ultimate spiritual binding force, and the integrity and morality in engineering implementation can be highlighted in a humanitarian way. With the title of "The Ethics of Absolute Command and the Ethics of Coordination - Four Talks on Engineering Ethics", Li Bocong has sorted out the Chinese traditional cultural resources similar to Kant's absolute command in the binding mechanism of human beings in Chinese history.