Section outline

  • Senses of engineering ethics1Inquiring into the Ethical Dimensions of Professional Practice

    SENSES OF ENGINEERING ETHICS:

    There are two different senses (meanings) of engineering ethics, namely the Normative and the Descriptive senses. The normative sense includes:

    (a) Knowing moral values, finding accurate solutions to moral problems and justifying moral judgments in engineering practices,

    (b) Study of decisions, policies, and values that are morally desirable in the engineering practice and research, and

    (c) Using codes of ethics and standards and applying them in their transactions by engineers. The descriptive sense refers to what specific individual or group of engineers believe an act, without justifying their beliefs or actions.
    The main goal of courses in Moral Inquiry is to provide students with the ability to understand the varying or conflicting solutions that, in a global world, have been proposed to fundamental moral and ethical questions.