Engineering Ethics
Santa UC Cruz – CMPE 80E – Spring 2009
TR 12:00 – 1:45 PM
J Baskin Engr 152
http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/classes/cmpe080e/Spring09/
SYLLABUS
Instructor: Gene Moriarty
Office: J Baskin Engr 157B
Office Phone: 831.459.3691
Email:
Office Hours: TR 1:45 – 3:00 PM
Text
Gene Moriarty, The Engineering Project: Its Nature, Ethics, and Promise, (referred to as EP), Penn State University Press, 2008.
Other readings will be available on the WEB or at the course website.
Overview of the course
CMPE80E (Engineering Ethics) looks at engineering ethics in particular and the engineering project in general in their historical and philosophical contexts. The course stresses ethical theories and analyses and their application to issues in the practice of engineering, such as safety and liability, professional responsibility to clients and employers, codes of ethics, legal obligations, environmental issues, and social issues. Through the use of case studies, the course emphasizes developing independent ethical sensitivity and a moral imagination.
Required Skills to pass the course
1. Should be able to critically read and analyze written information, including:
• Critically read descriptions and data for biased information.
• Analyze the information in a written description to identify the factual issues and conceptual issues, determine the obligations and responsibilities of the participants, assess the relevant ethical values.
• Based on the ethical analysis, propose possible solutions using an articulated ethical position/theory.
2. Should be able to form an opinion based on a reasoned ethical position. This opinion must be supported with facts and evidence to further the weight of the opinion being expressed.
3. Show development of an awareness of the ethical component of daily engineering decisions.
Core Topics
1. Ethical Theories and Analysis
• Virtue Ethics
• Process Ethics
• Material Ethics
2. Safety, risk, and liability
3. Professionalism
• Responsibility to clients
• Responsibility to employers
• Work place issues
4. Codes of Ethics
• ACM
• IEEE
5. Legal Obligations
• Whistle blowing
• Intellectual Property
• Professional Integrity
6. Environmental Ethics
7. Social Impact of Technology
8. Engineering and Sustainable Development
Evaluation Criteria
A Class participation and in-class writing and group exercises,
homework assignments and responses. 40%
B Research Exercise (minimum 2000 words, 5-8 pages D.S.) 25%
C Midterm Exam 10%
D Final Exam 25%
TOTAL 100%
Course Schedule
Almost every week we will have
1) readings
2) an in-class individual writing exercise (½ page, 125 words),
3) an in-class group exercise (forming into small groups of 5 students, discuss a handout from the literature, write a single ½ page group response, and have the group’s spokesperson report to the class, with each group having the opportunity to report at least once during the quarter),
4) a take-home writing exercise (1 page, 250 words) assigned on Thursday and due the following Tuesday.
In addition, we will have a Research Exercise to be due the second from last week of the Quarter.
Feedback regarding form and content will be provided on all the writing assignments in an on-going fashion.
Week 1 – Introduction and Overview
Goals: to introduce myself and have you do the same / to discuss the course syllabus / to introduce some basic ideas about ethics from two short videos by Lawrence Hinman / to introduce fundamental ideas concerning engineering ethics via a Power Point Presentation called “Engineering Ethics in 3-D” / to consider the micro and macro perspectives on the engineering project and the three types of ethics to be looked at in this class / to discuss case studies in engineering ethics and to have a half-page in-class written response to a case study.
Readings due: none.
Assignments (due next week): read EP Introduction / read the essays “Obama and the Return of the Real,” Jonathan Schell, The Nation, 2009 and “Three Kinds of Ethics for Three Kinds of Engineering,” Gene Moriarty, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 2001 / write (type) a one-pager indicating steps you as an engineer might take to mitigate the crises Jonathan Schell points out.
Week 2 – Case Study Analysis
Goals: to present a case study video (Incident at Morales) in dramatized form and have you analyze the ethical issues involved and write a ½ page in-class response to these issues in terms of your general understanding of ethics (one question to answer is at what point in the video did ethical issues first arise?) / to have an in-class group exercise.
Readings (due this week): EP Introduction, Moriarty essay, Schell essay.
Assignments (due next week): EP Chapter 1 (Process) / read the essays “Engineering Ethics and Political Imagination,” Langdon Winner, Broad and Narrow Interpretations of Philosophy of Technology, P. T. Durbin (ed.), 1990 and “Ethical Considerations in Engineering Design Processes,” van Gorp and van de Poel, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 2001 / write a one-pager showing how the case study considered in the van Gorp and van de Poel essay satisfies what Winner would think a Case Study in engineering should be / Research Exercise (RE) will be assigned for which details will be provided (due second from last week of the Quarter.)
Week 3 – Professionalism and Processes of the Engineering Project
Goals: to discuss and critique Winner’s position on engineering ethics / to discuss the fundamental constituents of the process of the modern engineering enterprise: engineering science, engineering design, and engineering professionalism / to understand and discuss the fundamental elements of a profession and how engineering can be taken as a profession / to appreciate the need for a profession to embrace a sense of obligation and thereby be guided by a system of ethics / to have an in-class group exercise / to have a half-page in-class written response to course material.
Readings (due this week): EP Chapter 1, Winner essay, van Gorp and van de Poel essay.
Assignment (due next week): EP Chapter 2 (Process Ethics) / read the essays “The Public Health, Safety and Welfare,” Michael McFarland, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 1986 and “Professional Ethics, Ethos, and the Integrity of the Professions,” William Sullivan, The Centennial / write a one page essay discussing whether or not protection of the health, safety, and welfare of the public is a sufficient value for engineers to pursue in order to be true professionals.
Week 4 – Engineering Codes and Process Ethics
Goals: to understand the rather long-winded ACM Code of Ethics and the succinct IEEE Code / to show how these codes can be applied to case studies / to understand fundamental ethical theories like deontology and consequentialism / to watch a Hinman video on Utilitarianism / to show how these theories are embedded in codes of ethics / to appreciate the need to embrace the health, safety, and welfare of society as paramount / to have an in-class group exercise / to have a half-page in-class written response to course material.
Readings (due this week): EP Chapter 2, McFarland essay, Sullivan essay.
Assignment (due next week): read the essays “Rules, Ethics and Morals in Engineering Education,” Aarne Vesilind, Engineering Education, 1988 and “Technology, Sustainability, and Development,” Arnd Jurgensen, Bulletin of STS,
2000 / no writing home work to allow time to work on the RE.
Week 5 – Further Discussion of Process Ethics
Goals: to understand how the value of health & safety operates within the process ethics framework / to understand how the value of environmental sustainability operates within the process ethics framework / to understand how the value of social justice operates within the process ethics framework / to have an in-class group exercise / to write a half-page in-class response to course material.
Readings (due this week): the Vesilind essay, the Jurgensen essay.
Assignment (due next week): read EP Chapters 3 and 6 and the “Notes on Habermas” as well as the short book review “What Else Is New?” Steven Shapin, The New Yorker, 2007 / write one page showing where Technological Determinism and Social Constructionism appear in the Shapin review.
Week 6 – The Shift from a Micro View to a Macro View and Back
Goals: to understand the Technological Determinism vs. Social Constructionism debate / to understand the contextualization and colonization distinction / to discuss the shift from process in the modern engineering enterprise to person in the pre-modern engineering endeavor / to have an in-class group exercise / to write a half-page in-class response to course material / MIDTERM EXAM
Readings (due this week): EP Chapters 3 and 6, Shapin essay, notes on Habermas.
Assignments (due next week): read EP Chapter 4 (Person) / read the essay “Capitalism, Work, and Character,” Bertram and Sharpe, The American Prospect, 2002 / read the essay “Platonic Virtue Theory and Business Ethics,” Sherwin Klein, Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 1989 / read the short piece on “The Earliest Engineers” / write one page explaining the relevance of the Platonic system of ethics for the modern engineering enterprise.
Week 7 – The Person of the Engineer and Virtue Ethics
Goals: to understand who the engineer is, her or his personality and character / to understand the structures of being-toward, being-with, and being-for grounding the virtues of objectivity, honesty, and care / to show a video about Tesla / to show a Hinman video on Aristotle’s virtue ethics / to have an in-class group exercise / to write a half-page in-class response to course material.
Readings (due this week): EP Chapter 4, the essays assigned last week.
Assignments (due next week): EP Chapter 5 (Virtue Ethics) / read the web essay “A Different Voice by Carol Gilligan” / watch the video by Gilligan (on-line) “Voice and Relationship: Rethinking the Foundations of Ethics” / write a one pager showing how Gilligan’s sense of care can inform the technological personality.
Week 8 – Products of the Engineering Process
Goals: to understand what the products of the engineering process are / how these products can be Focal Products / to inquire about these systems, services, structures, devices, organisms, and networks which are being let loose upon the planet: are they good products? Do they fulfill and engage our lives in a deep and meaningful manner? / to have an in-class group exercise / to write a half-page in-class response to course material.
Readings (due this week): EP Chapter 5, the Gilligan essay.
Assignments (due next week): EP Chapter 7 (Product) and Chapter 8 (Material Ethics) / read “New Media and the Quality of Life,” Philip Brey, Phil and Tech, 1997 / “The Moral Significance of Material Culture,” Albert Borgmann, in his collection of essays Power Failure, 2006 (hand-out) / no writing home work to allow time to work on the RE.
Week 9 – Material Ethics
Goal: to understand how the idea of The Good, which focal products strive for, invokes a wider context which might include political, cultural, and spiritual dimensions / case studies on the cell phone and RFID devices / to understand material ethics of the product / to understand the different kinds of harmony: engagement, enlivenment, and resonance / to be able to relate these to product, world, and end-user / to have an in-class group exercise / to write a half-page in-class response to course material / to hand in Research Exercise.
Readings (due this week): EP Chapters 7 and 8, the essays assigned last week.
Assignments (due next week): EP Chapter 9 (Balance) / read the essay “Amish Technology,” Jameson Wetmore, IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, 2007 / write a one pager about how Amish practices and products are focal / read the essay “The Good Life in a Technological World: Focal Things and Practices in the West and in Japan’” Topi Heikkero, Technology in Society, 2005.
Week 10 – Further Discussion of Material Ethics
Goal: to understand how engineers can satisfy the tenets of virtue ethics and engineering can satisfy the tenets of process ethics but the engineered product can still be ethically problematic / to deepen our understanding of the material ethics of the product via examples / to understand the balance that we seek in focally engineered products / to compare the Quality of Life with the Standard of Living / to consider the distinction between wealth and affluence / to have an in-class group exercise / to write a half-page in-class response to course material / to review for the FINAL.
Readings (due this week): Heikkero essay and the Wetmore essay.
Assignments (due next week): prepare for final exam.
Final exam: (June 8, 4PM - 7PM) ten one-paragraph answer essay questions (bring BLUE BOOK).
Grading Information:
90% and above A
80% - 90% B
70% - 80% C
60% - 70% D
below 60% F
University-Based Ethics Resources on the Web
See the following web sites for more materials on engineering ethics and professionalism:
The Online Ethics Center for Engineering and Science: http://onlineethics.org/
National Institute for Engineering Ethics: http://www.niee.org/
Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at IIT: http://ethics.iit.edu/
Association for Practical and Professional Ethics at IU: http://www.indiana.edu/~appe/
IEEE Ethics and Member Conduct Committee: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/committee/emcc/
IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology: http://policy.rutgers.edu/andrews/projects/ssit/ungercom.shtml
Texas A&M Univ. engineering ethics: http://ethics.tamu.edu/
NSF Workshops, Teaching Ethics and Computing, K. Bowyer, Univ. Notre Dame: http://www.cse.nd.edu/~kwb/nsf-ufe/index.html
NSPE Board of Ethical Review: http://www.nspe.org/ethics/eh1-whb.asp
Ethics Officer Association: http://www.eoa.org/
Journal, "Science and Engineering Ethics": http://www.opragen.co.uk/SEE/
The WEB cite for Computer Ethics at http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/
Academic Integrity and Social Integrity
UCSC’s policy on Academic Integrity:
http://www.ucsc.edu/academics/academic_integrity/
Please read this policy fully.
Disability Resource Center (DRC)
If you qualify for classroom accommodations because of a disability, please submit your Accommodation Authorization from the Disability Resource Center (DRC) to me during my office hours in a timely manner, preferably within the first two weeks of the quarter. Contact DRC at 459-2089 (voice), 459-4806 (TTY)
Course Policy on Social Integrity
This course will require a lot of thought, reactions and discussions. You will be asked to do readings and discuss and critique the readings. You will have in and out of class discussions. The goal is to empower you with a set of ethical standards to help you make decisions as engineers. We want you to get used to standing up for what you think is correct. But – and this is important – personal opinion is not enough in this class. You must be able to provide and state a reasoned and supported position, not your personal opinion. To this end strong discussions are expected and hoped for. However there is a line of acceptable behavior, when discussing anything. You are responsible for your conduct in class and out regardless of circumstances. Actions of disrespect or intolerance towards anyone are unacceptable in any academic or professional setting. Discrimination on the basis of age, creed, ethnicity, gender, political views, religion or sexual orientation will not be allowed and will be dealt with appropriately. You can disagree with a person’s view; you can argue that the ethical basis on which they make their decisions is wrong. But you must do it within the norms of academic discourse and be civil about it.