Engineering Ethics

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Engineering Ethics

• An introductory course
• By Herman LODEWYCKX, M.Ph.
• Brno, FME, 27 may 2008

2
Engineering Ethics

• Introduction some cases
• Ethics
• Engineering ethics

3
Introduction some cases

• 1912 Titanic

4
Introduction some cases

• 1973 Ford Pinto Fuel System design

5
Introduction some cases

• 1974 DC 10 Turkish jet crashes near Paris,
  killing 345

6
Introduction some cases

• 1984 Bhopal Accident(India) chemical plant

7
Introduction some cases

• 1986 Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster

8
Introduction some cases

• 1986 Tchernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster

9
Introduction some cases

• 1987 Herald of Free Enterprise (Zeebrugge, Be)

10
Introduction some cases

• 1998 ICE Train Accident in Eschede (Germany)

11
Introduction some cases

• 2000 Concorde Crash (Paris)

12
Introduction some cases

• 2006 Maglev Train Accident in Lathen (Germany)

13
Introduction some cases

• 2004 Millau Viaduct (France)

14
Introduction some cases

• 2008 Boeing 787 vs Airbus 380?

15
Introduction some cases

• Conclusions?
• Incidents, Accidents, Disasters only?
• More risky technology? Less risky technology?
• Responsibility the company or the engineer?
• Economics vs ethics?

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Part 1 Ethics

• Ethical Paradigm
• Ethical Methodology

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Ethics a short introducton

• Ethics / Morals, Morality
• Morals, Morality (system of) (moral) values and
  (moral) principles as guidelines for somenones
  (moral) conduct and (moral) judgment
• Ethics scientific discipline
• Systematically, critically, methodological,
  reflection about the morality/morals of man
• Traditions philosophy and moral theology
• To clarify, justify and to unmask
• E.g. good, quality, progress, natural,
  normal,

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Ethics a short introducton

• Main objective
• Le plus humain possible dans une société juste
  (P. Ricoeur, 1913-2005)
• (the most human possible in a just society MHP
  i/a JS)
• Cfr. Categorical Imperative of I. Kant
  (1724-1804)
• Never use someone as mere means, but as an end in
  itself
• Universalisation maxim act as if the maxim of
  your actions should be a universal law for all
  men

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Ethics a short introducton

• Ethical Paradigm
• Paradigm the set of practices that define a
  scientific discipline, a thought pattern, a
  theoretical framework or epistemological context
• (Th. Kuhn, 1922-1996)
• Ethical Methodology

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Ethical Paradigm
action
principles
Translated in
Based on
values
Vision on Man Society
worldview
?
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Ethical Paradigm
action

• Morals of
• Men
• Groups, company
• Societies, cultures,

principles
values
Vision on Man Society
Philosophy, ideology, spirituality
worldview
why?
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Ethical Paradigm
action

• Actions of a moral actor
• individual micro-ethics e.g. engineers
• collectivity group, company,
  meso-ethics e.g. corporation
• Anonymous
• macro-ethics e.g. global

principles
values
Vision on Man Society
worldview
?
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Ethical Paradigm
action
Actions of a moral actor- question of free
will, of men The free will is a necessary
precondition for the judgement of the
responsibility of men. Free will is the
possibility of choices, the ability to act, the
base of self-determination, of autonomy.
principles
values
Vision on Man Society
worldview
?
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Ethical Paradigm
action

• Principles, norms, standards
• A multiscopic view
• technological
• financial, economical
• law, legislation
• aesthetic
• ethical? moral?
• translation of values
• based on, inspired by values

principles
values
Vision on Man Society
worldview
?
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Moral Principles
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Moral Principles
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Fundamental Principles
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Ethical Paradigm
action

• Values
• personal or subjective
• social or cultural
• corporate
• professional
• pre-moral
• moral universal, intrinsic
• ? MHP i/a JS
• e.g. justice, integrity,
• Virtues vices? to be a good engineer ?

principles
values
Vision on Man Society
worldview
?
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Values
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Ethical Paradigm
action

• Relation between man and society?
• individual centered or society-centered ?
  (Liberalism vs. socialism)
• man as a (economical)consumer or as (political)
  citizen?
• Vision on men and humanity? somatic,
  rational, emotional, metaphysical dimensions
• Vision on society economical, political,
  juridical, cultural, religious, structures

principles
values
Vision on Man Society
worldview
?
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Ethical Paradigm
action

• Worldview Weltanschauung
• what is life (vs. death)?
• Nature Nurture Culture
• man and animal
• man, men and evolution
• the natural and the supernatural
• Expressed in philosophy, ideology, theology
• e.g. retour à la nature vs. against
  (technological) progress

principles
values
Vision on Man Society
worldview
?
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Ethical Paradigm
action

• Belief in ?
• Religion or ?
• ? spirituality inspiration to

principles
values
Vision on Man Society
worldview
?
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• What do I know about this problem?
• homework to do!

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• Is this ethical?
• / is this legal
• Ethical question about responsibility!
• cfr. Collective responsibility
• cfr. Corporate social responsibility
• cfr. Professional responsibility

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Lets clarify
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?
3 aspects of an ethical analysis
2. Ethical question?
S.A.
O.A.
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
Ethical?
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
S of M
7. Evaluation
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• Subjective aspect
• whos the subject of the action?
• what are the motives? the reason why?

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• Subjective aspect
• whos the subject of the action?
• question of the moral actor
• Individual
• Corporation, group
• anonymous

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• Subjective aspect
• what are the motives? the reason why? Intentions?
• psychological
• social
• ethical principles and values
• Morality of best intentions?
• Necessity of clarification of these intentions
• Correction by the effects of these actions

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• Objective aspect
• Consequences, effects
• For what? For whom?
• Short term long term?
• A precedent case
• Negative? Positive?
• good or bad, harm?
• Consequentialist ethics the ends justify the
  means? (N. Machiavelli, Utilitarianism, hedonism,
  )

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• Search for meaning
• S.A.good intentions?
• O.A.good consequences?
• Criteria for good?
• quest for a referential framework or paradigm
• technology
• economics
• legal
• aesthetic
• ethics MHP i/a JS

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• Search for meaning
• ethics MHP i/a JS
• Man ? People
• Environment ? Planet
• Society ? Profit
• Quest for Sustainability

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• Are there better alternatives, options than the
  suggested solution?
• ? new information?
• ? new ethical questions?
• ? new ethical analysis

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Ethical Methodology
1. Information?

• Evaluation of the ethical methodology

2. Ethical question?
3. Subjective Aspect
4. Objective Aspect
5. Search for meaning
6. Alternatives?
7. Evaluation
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Part 1 Ethics

• Conclusions
• Ethical Paradigm, referential framework
• Ethical Methodology
• Ethical questions ? answers , / solutions!

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics
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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Teaching engineering ethics to acquire the
  following moral competences
• Moral sensibility the ability to recognize
  social and ethical issues in technology
• Moral analysis skills the ability to analyse
  moral problems in terms of facts, values,
  stakeholdes and their interests
• Moral creativity the ability to think out
  different options for action in the light of
  (conflicting) moral values and the relevant facts

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Teaching engineering ethics to acquire the
  following moral competences
• Moral judgment skills the ability to give a
  moral judgment on the basis of different ethical
  theories or frameworks including professional
  ethics and common sense morality
• Moral decision-making skills the ability to
  reflect on different ethical theories and
  frameworks and to make a decision based on that
  reflection
• Moral argumentation skills the ability to
  morally justify ones actions and to discuss and
  evaluate them together with other engineers and
  non-engineers

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Engineering
• Engineer Engine
• Ingénieur génie
• As a profession 17th 18th Century
  Industrialisation 
•  civil engineering 
• see Technique ? technology the
  scientification of a discipline

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Engineer ? micro-ethics
• Functions in a corporation ? meso-ethics ?
  business ethics, corporate ethics
• Corporation functions in a global context ?
  macro-ethics
• opportunities limits, restraints for the
  self-determination

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics
Global Ethics

• Ethics
• Methodological reflection on morals and morality
• Culture
• systems of values and norms, expressed in
  symbolic structures, activities, institutions,
• the way we do things here
• Codes
• ethical guidelines, code of conduct,.

Business EthicsCorporate Ethics
Engineering Ethics
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Part 2 Engineering Ethics
Global Ethics

• People population, poverty, peace and war,
  justice in distribution of wealth and other goods
  (water, energy, )
• Planet sustainability effects of climate
  change global warming, bio-diversity,
• Profit globalization of the marketplace
  distribution of profits and costs

Business EthicsCorporate Ethics
Engineering Ethics
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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Responsibility to
• Stakeholders all those who are affected and have
  legitimate rights regarding the actions of a the
  company or organization (R.E. Freeman)
• Shareholders, stockholders
• People in the organization
• Clients, customers
• Employees
• Suppliers
• communities
• public at large
• Environment
• Conflict of interests values

Global Ethics
Business EthicsCorporate Ethics
Engineering Ethics
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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Responsibility to
• Stakeholders all those who are affected and have
  legitimate rights regarding the actions of a the
  company or organization (R.E. Freeman)
• Shareholders, stockholders
• People in the organization
• Clients, customers
• Employees
• Suppliers
• communities
• public at large
• Environment
• Conflict of interests values

Global Ethics
Business EthicsCorporate Ethics
Engineering Ethics
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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• How to organize the responsibility in a company?
• structural side materials, engines, procedures,
  instructions, safety systems, total quality
  systems, maintenance management systems, ISO
  9000 OHSAS 18000, ISO 14000,
• social side Human Resource Management
  recruitment, motivation and compensation,
  training and development, leadership, teamwork,
  division of labor,

Global Ethics
Business EthicsCorporate Ethics
Engineering Ethics
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EFQM-model
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The Swiss cheese modelof J. Reason
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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Responsibility of an engineer?
• as role or function?
• manager of quality, maintenance, safety,
• teacher
• designer
• civil servant
• independent consultant
• Allocation of responsibilities in production
  processes?
• Teamwork no one is responsible? Whos in
  charge?
• A long term design process (e.g. Airbus 380
  Boeing Dreamliner,)

Global Ethics
Business EthicsCorporate Ethics
Engineering Ethics
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Engineer as a designer

• Engineering design
• is a (iterative) process
• by which certain goals or functions are
  translated into a blueprint
• for an artefact, process, system or service that
  can fulfill these functions.
• E.g. cutting bread ? knife
• E.g. transportation by air ? airplane

function
Analysis
Synthesis
simulation
evaluation
decision
result
criteria
prototype
properties
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Engineer as a designer

• Problem analysis and definition formulation of
  design requirements or criteria
• Provisional synthesis of a concept need of human
  creativity
• Simulation to judge the properties of the
  concept or prototype by means of experimentation,
  calculation, computing models
• Evaluation of the quality of the concept,
  regarding the criteria
• Decision to continue the process or to
  reconsider the analysis, the synthesis, the
  criteria, to find better options or solutions

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Engineer as an ethical designer
objective
objective
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Engineer as an ethical designer

• Formulation of the ethical issue
• Design requirements ethical, morally ok?
• E.g. production of waste (packing e.g)sustainability
• E.g. financial profit (S.T.)impact(L.T.)
• Analysis
• what are the morally relevant values?
• Clarification of implicit ((non)-moral)
  assumptions!
• E.g. human well-being, justice, welfare, human
  rights, sustainability,
• Options conceptual design of potential solutions

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Engineer as an ethical designer

• Moral judgement conflict of interests values
• E.g. safety vs. ecology, environment
• E.g. fast mobility vs. ecological impact
• E.g. safety vs. comfort
• E.g. comfort vs. environment
• Reflection
• Trade-off between various ethically relevant
  design requirements sustainability, safety,
  comfort, cost, working conditions, health risks
  for users and workers,
• The best solution? E.g. a safe car, a safe
  airplane,

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Engineer as an ethical designer

• Important methods
• cost-benefit analysis
• multiple criteria design analysis,
• Safety risk analysis, risk assessment
• Sustainability Life cycle analysis (LCA), from
  cradle to grave or from cradle to cradle (C2C)
  the choice of materials, of energy sources,
• Script analysis of technological artefacts an
  artefact forces the user to a particular use,
  put restraints on his/her autonomy or
  self-determination e.g. fastening seat belts is
  obligatorily or the car doesnt start
• Constructive Technology Assessment a
  (non-authoritarian) dialogue between (groups) of
  stakeholders (Participatory design)

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Conclusions
• Discussing ethics is not against technology, nor
  against progress, but failures, disasters,
  accidents, misuse of technology in the past, with
  or without conscience intentions, by engineers
  must open the discussion about good technology
  and the orientation and direction of what is
  meant by technological progress. Ethics has a
  long tradition that can help in this evolution.
  Recent evolutions on business ethics and
  engineering ethics proof this. Ethics and
  technique should be partners in the struggle for
  a better world.

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Conclusions
• Even the new kind of legislation (e.g. European
  Directives) opens this debate since 1992 Europe
  asks to implement the precautionary principle.
  Legislation is less casuistic, and presents more
  frameworks that invite the actors to behave as
  good housekeepers, to make a choice for the
  best available technology, to sustain
  sustainable technology, an invitation to
  engineers to use their genius, their creativity
  by difficult choices

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Conclusions
• Big corporations, companies, organizations, have
  introduced the ethical option (Corporate Social
  Responsibility) its necessary to cope with
  problems that raise on a more global scale than
  ever. No professional engineer can ignore this.
  There will be no place for free riders,
  otherwise this planet will be a disaster for the
  next generation. Will engineers join their
  companies in that direction? Will engineers
  influence the decision makers in a good
  direction? Are they only executives of orders
  from elsewhere?

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Conclusions
• Engineers (ability, the creativity and the capacity to make
  changes for a better world on a small scale or
  on a large scale. Will they lack the
  courage?Its a choice to be in the vanguard of
  the peloton (with a lot of wind against you), in
  the peloton (safe and sure) or at the rear-guard
  to cope with the problems caused by the peloton,
  frustrated?

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Part 2 Engineering Ethics

• Conclusions
• A last case the quest for energy
• Fossil fuels
• Bio fuels, biogas
• Fuel cells
• Renewable energy sunlight, wind, tides,
  geothermal heat,
• Nuclear energy

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While Branson's biofuel jet flies, Airbus tests
fuel cellsFebruary 25, 2008http//www.bravenewle
af.com/environment/2008/02/while-bransons.html

• As we've covered before, airplanes are a
  dangerous source of CO2 because they 1) burn tons
  of gas, and 2) the emissions are output directly
  in the atmosphere, giving them no opportunity to
  be absorbed by plants. This week, two separate
  approaches to the problem made headlines.
• Leading off is the first 100 biodiesel powered
  commercial flight. Richard Branson's Virgin Air
  flew a 747 from London to Amsterdam yesterday on
  a cocktail of coconut oil and brazil nuts. No
  engine modifications were necessary.
• Unfortunately, using biodiesel as the source of
  fuel has plopped Branson's experiment right in
  the middle of one of the fiercest debates in
  environmental circles. In theory, biodiesel is
  better for the environment because the crops suck
  up CO2 while they're being grown. In practice,
  some studies claim ethanol and biodiesel to have
  bigger carbon footprints than their carbon
  counterparts.

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While Branson's biofuel jet flies, Airbus tests
fuel cellsFebruary 25, 2008http//www.bravenewle
af.com/environment/2008/02/while-bransons.html

• As the debate rages fiercely, Airbus is quietly
  making strides towards green air travel using
  another technique fuel cells. Widely known to be
  the claimed "future" of clean automobile
  transportation, fuel cells have had problems
  finding their way into mass production due to the
  expense of the materials required, and the fact
  that we still don't know how to make hydrogen
  cleanly.
• But for aircraft, fuel cells might be just what
  the airlines ordered. The expense of materials is
  not as much of a concern when a fleet only needs
  300 engines, fuel cells reduce aircraft noise,
  and they even can lighten aircraft.
• Airbus' test only used the fuel cells to power
  back-up systems, hydraulics, and the wing flaps,
  but the successful test means potentially broader
  applications down the road.