Engineering ethics involve applying moral decisions to engineering activities and products. Ethical standards vary across cultures, but causing harm is universally considered a mistake. Interest in ethical engineering has grown due to high-profile disasters. Historically, engineering has focused on devising solutions without considering their impact on society and the environment. Ethics can improve the field by holding engineers to moral standards. Laws alone are insufficient, and ethics training can help avoid mistakes. Ethical errors can lead to lawsuits, giving companies an incentive to improve practices. Ethical engineering has counterparts in medicine and business.
Engineering ethics are the application of moral decisions to the development and use of engineered products and engineering activities. Ethical standards are defined in the context of social mores, which vary from culture to culture. Some moral decisions are more universal. In general, causing harm to other people or property is considered an ethical mistake, except in the most extreme circumstances.
As a relatively new field, interest in ethical engineering has grown due to high-profile engineering disasters, such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This oil spill severely impacted the US Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Engineers are applying technology to solve problems and create new opportunities.
The field of engineering has historically been more focused on devising solutions. There has been less attention to the potential impact these solutions can have on society and the environment. Engineering ethics are seen as a way to improve the field of engineering so that less harm can occur. In engineering ethics, engineers are held to standards of moral behavior in the design and manufacture of devices and processes.
Additional factors are considered beyond achieving sufficient productivity to profit in ethical engineering. Some laws are already in place in many countries to protect people and property from engineered products and processes. Proponents of engineering ethics argue that laws alone are insufficient, as the ethical character has an additional limitation against evil than laws alone. Engineers skilled in the field of ethics are often more likely to consider the ramifications of their engineering activities on others and the environment.
The application of engineering ethics in a real environment occurs in several ways. Reaching out to engineers while they are still in college, or early in their career through the provision of ethics training, would help them avoid ethics mistakes later on. There is sometimes disagreement between managers who insist on discarding ethics to focus solely on productivity and engineers who refuse to commit unethical acts, creating workplace strife.
Ethics is closely related to jurisprudence, which is the theory and practice of law. Ethical errors in product engineering can lead to lawsuits. This can give companies a strong incentive to improve ethical practices in engineering. Ethical engineering has counterparts in medicine and business practice.
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