Engineering Ethics

Citation

Fleddermann, C. B. (2012). Engineering Ethics (4th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall.

Chapter Summary

The fourth edition is a short book of about 180 pages: eight chapters, two appendices and an index. Pearson describes it as both a textbook and a resource for the study of engineering ethics, written for undergraduate engineering programmes that incorporate ethics topics, and intended to prepare future engineers to confront and resolve ethical dilemmas in their careers. Every chapter ends with references and problems; Chapters 2–7 also list key terms, and Chapter 1 has a summary.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The opening chapter explains why engineers should study ethics. Its sections present engineering as "managing the unknown", distinguish personal from professional ethics, sketch the origins of ethical thought and the relation between ethics and the law, and make the claim that ethics problems are like design problems. It closes with a set of case studies, which take up about half of the chapter.

Chapter 2: Professionalism and Codes of Ethics

This chapter asks whether engineering is a profession and examines codes of ethics, the documents in which engineering societies set out their members' obligations. It is closely linked to Appendix A, which reproduces several of these codes.

Chapter 3: Understanding Ethical Problems

The theory chapter. After a brief history of ethical thought, it presents the main ethical theories used to analyse problems and adds a section on non-Western ethical thinking.

Chapter 4: Ethical Problem-Solving Techniques

The method chapter. It shows how to analyse the issues in an ethical problem, then introduces line drawing and flow charting as techniques and discusses conflict problems. It ends by applying the methods to bribery and the acceptance of gifts.

Chapter 5: Risk, Safety, and Accidents

One of the two longest chapters. It treats safety and risk, then accidents, a section that runs to almost twenty pages.

Chapter 6: The Rights and Responsibilities of Engineers

Professional responsibilities and professional rights, followed by a long section on whistle-blowing.

Chapter 7: Ethical Issues in Engineering Practice

Three areas of practice: environmental ethics, computer ethics, and ethics in research.

Chapter 8: Doing the Right Thing

A short closing chapter of about five pages, with references and problems.

Appendices A–B

Appendix A reproduces the codes of ethics of the IEEE, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Japan Society of Civil Engineers. Appendix B is a bibliography of general books on engineering ethics, journals that publish articles and cases, and websites.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–2: Foundations

• Engineering as managing the unknown: the chapter's characterisation of engineering work as proceeding under uncertainty, one of its reasons for studying ethics.
• Personal and professional ethics: the difference between an individual's own moral standards and the obligations that come with professional practice.
• Ethics problems as design problems: the analogy the opening chapter draws between resolving an ethical dilemma and solving a design problem.
• Codes of ethics: the written statements of professional obligation adopted by engineering societies.

Chapters 3–4: Theory and method

• Ethical theories: systematic frameworks for deciding what is right, introduced with a brief history and with non-Western traditions.
• Line drawing: placing a case on a spectrum between clearly acceptable and clearly unacceptable examples.
• Flow charting: mapping the consequences of possible decisions step by step.
• Conflict problems: cases in which obligations clash and a choice between them has to be justified.

Chapters 5–7: Issues in practice

• Safety and risk: the acceptability of risk in engineered products and systems.
• Whistle-blowing: making wrongdoing public when internal channels fail, and when that is justified.
• Environmental, computer and research ethics: three areas of engineering practice that raise distinct ethical questions.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Short enough to fit anywhere. At about 180 pages, with chapters of roughly 15–30 pages, the book can be covered in a few weeks or spread through a design or capstone course. This matches Pearson's description of a text for programmes that incorporate ethics topics rather than devote a full course to them.
• Method as well as theory. Chapter 4 gives students concrete techniques (issue analysis, line drawing, flow charting, a way of handling conflict problems) and applies them to a worked topic. Chapter 1 frames ethics problems as design problems, which links ethical reasoning to something engineering students already do.
• Primary documents included. Appendix A collects six engineering societies' codes of ethics, including one from Japan, so students can compare the codes directly rather than read about them second-hand.
• Practice-oriented coverage. Risk and accidents, rights and whistle-blowing, and environmental, computer and research ethics take up most of the second half. Every chapter ends with problems for discussion or assignment.

Limitations

• Light on theory. Ethical theory is covered in one chapter of about fifteen pages. Students who need a philosophically grounded treatment will have to look elsewhere.
• US-centred codes. Five of the six codes in Appendix A come from US societies. Students in other countries will need to add their own national codes.
• Dated in places. This edition dates from 2011–2012. Its computer ethics section and any cases that depend on current technology should be supplemented with more recent material.

Where It Fits in the Course

Fleddermann is the most compact textbook in the engineering ethics list. Robert McGinn's The Ethical Engineer is also an introduction, but it is built around eighteen detailed case studies and four fundamental responsibilities of engineers. The two pair well: Fleddermann for method and codes, McGinn for depth on cases. Harris, Pritchard and colleagues' Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases also teaches line drawing and creative middle-way solutions, but at greater length and with a large case collection. Martin and Schinzinger's Ethics in Engineering develops the idea of engineering as social experimentation with more philosophical depth. Either is a good next step after Fleddermann.

Van de Poel and Royakkers's Ethics, Technology, and Engineering gives a philosophically grounded account that relies on ethical theory and argument rather than codes. Michelfelder and Doorn's Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Engineering is a scholarly reference for research-level questions. Both go far beyond Fleddermann's single theory chapter.

How to Use This Book

The book is written for undergraduate engineering students in any discipline, and no background in philosophy is required.

• Core: Chapters 1–4 in order. Chapter 3 supplies the theories, and Chapter 4 the techniques that the rest of the book assumes; practise line drawing and flow charting on the bribery and gifts application before moving on.
• Issues: Chapters 5–7 can be taken in any order, or chosen to suit the discipline. Chapter 5 suits courses on safety-critical design, Chapter 6 any course on professional practice, and the computer ethics section of Chapter 7 computing and electrical students.
• Close: Chapter 8 is short and works as a final reading.

Read your own society's code in Appendix A alongside Chapter 2, and return to it whenever a case raises a question of obligation. For each case, write a short analysis using the Chapter 4 techniques before discussing it in class. Use the end-of-chapter problems for group discussion, and the bibliography in Appendix B to find further cases for essays.