Hm-221 Social and Ethical Aspects in Engineering: Resource Person: Rizwan Younis UMT, Lahore

HM-221 SOCIAL AND ETHICAL
ASPECTS IN ENGINEERING
Resource Person: Rizwan Younis

UMT, Lahore
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ENGINEERING AS A PROFESSION
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RESPONSIBLE PROFESSIONALS
AND ETHICAL CORPORATIONS
What are Professions?
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In a broad sense, a profession is any occupation that

provides means by which to earn a living. In the sense
intended here, however, professions are those forms of
work involving advanced expertise, self-regulation, and
concentrated service to the public good.
What are Professions? (Contd.)
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1. Advanced expertise:
Professions require sophisticated skills (knowing-how)
and theoretical knowledge (knowing-that) in exercising
judgment that is not entirely routine or susceptible to
mechanization.
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 Preparation to engage in the work typically requires

extensive formal education, including technical studies in
one or more areas of systematic knowledge as well as some
broader studies in the liberal arts (humanities, sciences,
arts).
 Generally, continuing education and updating knowledge
are also required.
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2. Self-regulation:
Well-established societies of professionals are allowed by
the public; to play a major role in setting standards for
admission to the profession, drafting codes of ethics,
enforcing standards of conduct, and representing the
profession before the public and the government.
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3. Public good:
The occupation serves some important public good, or aspect
of the public good, and it does so by making a concentrated
effort to maintain high ethical standards throughout the
profession.
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Example:
For instance, medicine is directed towards promoting health,
law towards protecting the public's legal rights, and
engineering towards technological solutions to problems
concerning the public's well-being, safety, and health. The
aims and guidelines in serving the public good are detailed in
professional codes of ethics.
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Professions, as structured groups of professionals, have

collective responsibilities to promote responsible conduct by
their members.
They can do so in many ways.
One important way is to promulgate and take seriously a code

of ethics for members of the profession.
Taking ethics seriously involves developing procedures for
disciplining irresponsible engineers.
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But the main emphasis in ethics should be supporting

responsible individuals.
In fact, the vast majority of engineers are morally
committed, but they need the support of morally
committed professional societies.
Professions and professionals also need to think in terms
of preventive ethics. That is, ethical reflection and action
aimed at preventing moral harm and unnecessary ethical
problems.
Senses of corporate responsibility
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Now we would talk about corporate responsibility.

All the senses we distinguished regarding individuals also
apply to corporations.
Senses of corporate responsibility (Contd.)
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1. Just as individuals have responsibilities (obligations), so

do corporations.
To be sure, corporations are communities of individuals,
structured within legal frameworks. Yet corporations have
internal structures consisting of policy manuals and
flowcharts assigning responsibilities to individuals.
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When those individuals act (or should act) in accordance

with their assigned responsibilities, the corporation as a
unity can be said to act. Thus, when we say that Intel created
a new subsidiary, we understand that individuals with the
authority took certain steps.
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2. Just as individuals are accountable for meeting their

obligations, so corporations are accountable to the general
public, to their employees and customers, and to their
stockholders. Corporations, too, have the capacity for
morally responsible agency because it is intelligible to speak
of the corporation acting standards.
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The actions of the corporation are performed by individuals

and subgroups within the corporation, according to how the
flowchart and policy manual specify areas of authority.
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3. Just as individuals manifest the virtue of responsibility

when they regularly meet their obligations, so the
corporations manifest the virtue of responsibility when they
routinely meet their obligations.
In general, it makes sense to ascribe virtues such as honesty,
fairness, and public spiritedness to certain corporations and
not to others.
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4. In contexts where it is clear that accountability for

wrongdoing is at issue, "responsible" becomes a synonym for
blameworthy, and in contexts where it is clear that right
conduct is at issue,“ responsible" is a synonym for
praiseworthy. This is as true for corporations as it is for
individuals.
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All these moral meanings are distinct from causal

responsibility, which consists simply in being a cause of some
event.
The meanings are also distinct from legal responsibility,
which is simply what the law requires.
Engineering firms can be held legally responsible for harm
that was so unlikely and unforeseeable that little or no moral
responsibility was involved.
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Case study:
One famous court case involved a farmer who lost an
eye when a metal chip flew off the hammer he was
using. He had used the hammer without problems for
eleven months before the accident.
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It was constructed from metals satisfying all the

relevant safety regulations, and no specific defect was
found in it. The manufacturer was held legally
responsible and required to pay damages. The basis
for the ruling was the doctrine of strict legal liability,
which does not require proof of defect or negligence
in design.
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Yet surely the manufacturing firm was not morally

guilty, or blameworthy for the harm done. It is
morally responsible only because it has an obligation
(based on the special relationship between it and the
farmer created by the accident) to help repair or
compensate for the harm caused by the defective
hammer.
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 After discovering that one of her students tweeted foul

language about her, a school teacher confronted the
teenager during a lesson on social media etiquette.
Inquiring why the student would post such hurtful
messages that could harm the teacher's reputation, the
student replied that she was upset at the time. The teacher
responded that she was very upset by the student's
actions. The teacher demanded a public apology in front
of the class, and the student apologized. The teacher later
stated that she would not allow young brats to call her
those names.
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Thank you

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HM-221 SOCIAL AND ETHICAL

Resource Person: Rizwan Younis

In a broad sense, a profession is any occupation that

 Preparation to engage in the work typically requires

Professions, as structured groups of professionals, have

One important way is to promulgate and take seriously a code

But the main emphasis in ethics should be supporting

Now we would talk about corporate responsibility.

1. Just as individuals have responsibilities (obligations), so

When those individuals act (or should act) in accordance

2. Just as individuals are accountable for meeting their

The actions of the corporation are performed by individuals

3. Just as individuals manifest the virtue of responsibility

4. In contexts where it is clear that accountability for

All these moral meanings are distinct from causal

It was constructed from metals satisfying all the

Yet surely the manufacturing firm was not morally

 After discovering that one of her students tweeted foul

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