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Major Ethics Case Studies

Major Ethics Case Studies. Focus on the major technological disasters and catastrophes in engineering. Module 4 in the “Teaching Engineering Ethics” Series. Outline of Material. Major Ethical Impact = Macro-ethics Micro-ethics (the individual and the situation) Macro-ethics (systemic issues)

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Major Ethics Case Studies

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  1. Major Ethics Case Studies Focus on the major technological disasters and catastrophes in engineering Module 4 in the “Teaching Engineering Ethics” Series

  2. Outline of Material • Major Ethical Impact = Macro-ethics • Micro-ethics (the individual and the situation) • Macro-ethics (systemic issues) • Ethics as a “Design Problem” • Engineer as a Moral Agent • Analogies: Design and Ethics Decisions • Case: The Space Shuttle Challenger

  3. Macro-Ethical Issues • Safety, Loss of Life, Catastrophic Failures • Typically Newsworthy Items • The Space Shuttle Challenger* • Bhopal—Union Carbide* • The Ford Pinto • Firestone and Ford Explorer tires • Three Mile Island / Chernobyl Nuclear Reactors • Kansas City Hyatt Suspended Walkway • Boston Molasses Tank Accident* • Indicative of systemic problems (beyond simple engineering and day-to-day ethics)

  4. Ethics as a Design Problem • The engineer as a moral agent • Moral problems • …are practical problems (they demand a response) • …are not multiple-choice problems • Design Process • Recognize and Evaluate the Problem • Devise solutions • Evaluate solutions • Choose from the alternatives • The “devise solutions” phase is typically shortchanged in the ethics judgment process or artificially constrained to a limited set of alternatives

  5. Ethics as a Design Problem • How ethics “sound bites” oversimplify the ethical reasoning process: • “Do the right thing” • Portrays the problem as having an exclusive solution set • “Should [the agent] do X or Y” • Portrays the problem as a binary multiple-choice solution set with no latitude for creating alternatives • Exploits a limited “win-lose” or “lose-win” paradigm • “There are no right or wrong answers” • Indicative of a “moral relativism” philosophy or simply that there is no uniquely correct solution • In reality, there can be solutions that are better than others and which can be prioritized • Also, solutions can each comprise a unique and special advantage

  6. Ethics as a Design Problem • What solutions sets exist for a given set of specifications or ethical constraints?

  7. Ethics as a Design Problem • Lessons from design problems: • Consider the Uncertainties in the Situation • Ambiguities often underemphasized in professional ethics • Decisions to be made: • Whether to gather additional evidence • How to address the issues with others • How to elicit support for the moral concern • Determining possible solutions is separate from defining the problem and may require more information • Time Pressure is real and demands searching for multiple alternative solutions in parallel • The ethical situation may be dynamically changing; decisions should not be made on an old “snapshot” of the situation

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