Class Syllabus

Philosophy 370 Moral Issues in Engineering (Engineering Ethics)

PDF version of PHIL 370 Class Syllabus

Autumn Semester, 2006
Dr. Vivian Weil

Please read this carefully and keep it so you can refer to it. The syllabus is designed to answer virtually all the questions you may have about the course.

Goals:

1. Students recognize that engineering problems have ethical aspects.
2. Students learn to identify ethical aspects, e.g. “We could substitute an almost equivalent composite material for material currently used in the fuel pump. Should we tell the customer? ” Ethical issue: deception. Other ethical issues?
3. Students learn how to reason about ethical aspects of engineering problems. That is, they learn to analyze the problems in the real world circumstances in which they occur and to use practical reasoning to figure out ethically defensible options to solve problems.
4. Students develop moral imagination so that they enter into the perspectives of others, not only engineers in resolving ethics problems.
5. Students learn to tolerate and also to reduce disagreement and ambiguity.
6. Students can explain key concepts: responsibility, duty, right, wrong, reasonable care, permissible, defensible, justifiable, occupational role, loyalty, profession, professional, conflict of interest, cost/benefit analysis, whistle-blowing, confidentiality, agency, professional ethical standards.

What the course covers:

• Engineering as a profession: a) some history; b) the workplace and the wider set of social institutions in which engineering is situated; c) ethical standards of the profession, the codes of ethics.
• Professional ethics in relation to law, common morality, and the market.
• Responsibility: a) role; b) causal; c) liability; d) capacity; e) forward-looking
• The standard of reasonable care
• Loyalty: critical and uncritical
• The engineer’s perspective alongside the business manager’s perspective
• Professional dissent and whistleblowing.
• Honesty, sharing and withholding information, confidentiality, secrecy.
• Conflict of interest, bribery, extortion, grease, gifts
• Managing risk to humans and the environment
• How government/the legal system influences engineering practice
• Design, innovation, and emerging technologies, especially disruptive technologies, e.g. IT, nano
• Issues associated with globalization

Method:
1) reading and listening to what practicing engineers, engineering professors, philosophers, and other thoughtful persons have to say about the topics listed above.
2) analyzing cases -- realistic “hypotheticals” and studies of actual occurrences such as the design flaw in the Citicorp Building -- to a) identify ethical issues, b) figure out options for resolving problems, and c) evaluate options on practical and ethical grounds.
3) discussing readings and cases in class to evaluate arguments, learn concepts, test ideas, and become comfortable with ethical give-and-take.
4) making presentations and completing writing assignments and exams that require taking a position and defending it with reasons. Every class will include a case discussion. Many classes will include a writing exercise of one minute, two sentences (not graded) that focuses on a major point of the assigned reading or the class discussion.

Texts: Ethical Issues in Engineering, edited by Deborah Johnson, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1991. Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases by Charles Harris, Michael Pritchard, and Michael Rabins (3rd Edition!) and additional readings of required articles and cases not available in the text. The additional required readings are indicated in bold in the class schedule and are available through Galvin Library’s electronic reserve. You may want a loose-leaf binder to retain all your printouts. Readings in Johnson’s book are indicated by DG, in Harris, Pritchard Rabins by HPR.

Course Assignments:

1. A typed paper providing analysis of a case and showing understanding of concepts. Assigned: 30 August 2006.
   Due: 13 September 2006
   
2. An interview with an engineer conducted in the workplace
   to discuss an ethics case/problem written by the student. The aim in the interview is to learn about resources in the company for dealing with such a problem. This assignment includes writing: 1) the case, 2) the interview questions, and 3) a report of the interview that concludes with a paragraph of insight gained about dealing with ethical problems in the workplace.
   Assigned: 14 September 2006 Due: 11 October 2006.
   
3. Group Projects: Student groups of 3 or 4 students will be formed by 18 October 2006.
   1) Each group will investigate an actual situation that has become public, e.g. a fatal accident in the testing of a new fast train;
   2) The investigation will include research on the organization(s) involved to learn as much as possible about practices, decisions, and actions that led up to the problem.
   3) Analysis of how the problem came about should lead to recommendations for helping engineers prevent or resolve such ethical problems.
   4) All the group members will present an oral report on the group’s findings in class during weeks 14 or 15. (If a group is ready to go in week 13, it may present on 20 November.
   5) The group will also submit a hard copy of the presentation, with citations of all sources used, including sources on the internet. Projects will be graded either High Pass, Pass, or Fail (with each participant in the group getting the same grade on the presentation and on the hard copy of the group report).
   6) In addition, each student will submit his or her own ethical analysis of the case or some ethical aspect of the case as a final paper (with citations of all sources used) that will receive an individual grade.

Tests:

There will be a mid-term during the entire class period on 16 October 2006 covering all assigned readings and topics scheduled to be completed before that date.

There will be a two-hour final exam in exam week that will cover the entire course, with emphasis on topics and readings covered after the mid-term. Both tests will be chiefly essay tests.

Grading:

Assigned papers, reports, mid-terms, and finals will be graded on the quality of analysis and evidence of familiarity with material in the readings and class discussion, They will be graded on the writing (organization, grammar, and punctuation) as well.

In some cases, students may be given the option to revise and resubmit a paper. If the revised paper is substantially improved, the paper will receive a higher grade that replaces the original grade.

Weighting: The first two assignments and the mid-term will be equal in value. The group report, final paper, and final exam are weighted more heavily. A strong finish can retrieve a slow start; a weak finish can be costly after a good start.

Attendance and Punctuality:

It is very important to attend each class and to arrive on time. Learning in an ethics course requires involvement in classroom give and take. Students sign an attendance sheet at the start of every class.