Prioritising People: Outline of an Aspirational Engineering Ethic

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges for engineering is the development of an aspirational ethical foundation in the profession that redresses the present imbalanced prioritisation of technical ingenuity over helping people. This article presents an analysis that seeks to provide a basis for such reprioritisation. It begins with a brief account of ethical analyses that have traditionally been applied to engineering. Some salient aspects of medical ethics and business ethics are then considered. An aspirational engineering ethic needs to overcome the limitations of the traditional ethical views and to learn from the analysis of ethics in these other professions. The present outline is based on two philosophical sources. Firstly, writings that lie somewhat outside what is conventionally regarded as the mainstream of ethics, especially those of Buber and Levinas, but which contain profound ethical insights that can provide an important balance to prevailing views. Secondly, recent writings that build on the philosophical mainstream in especially imaginative and useful ways, especially MacIntyre’s concept of a practice. Specific outcomes of the proposed aspirational engineering ethic for both individual engineers and engineering institutions are identified.