An Introduction To the View of Engineering Ethics

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Abstract：China has stepped onto the crucial stage of transforming from a big engineering country to a real engineering power, and striving for building a well-off society in an all-round way. But the fact can not be neglected that the level of engineering professionalization is still very low, and the engineers are still not well-reputed. This calls for the fields of engineering, engineering education and even all walks of life to deeply understand the implication of engineering as profession, to cultivate the sense of engineering professional duties and to put into practive the responsibilities of engineering profession. This dissertation puts forward the basic theory of engineering ethics, including the definition of engineering ethics,the major contents and their inner logic. Special emphasis is on the view of engineering ethics of the Chinese engineering undergraduates oriented professional ethics education. It is for the first time that the author clearly puts forward the concept “engineering ethics” and has elaborated the five categories: engineering benefits human being, engineering reputation, loyalty, cooperation, and self-government in engineering. In practice, it has been put forward in this dissertation that professional ethics safeguards self-government in engineering, of which education of engineering professional ethics is the premise, in that only when one achieves self-consciousness in ethics can they achieve self-discipline, and then self-government.

Key words：engineering ethics；the view of engineering ethics；education of engineering ethics

中图分类号：J05 文献标识码：Ａ 文章编号：1005-5312（2013）27-0167-02

Engineering activities can greatly improve human being’s level of productivity and living, but at the same time do harm to or threaten human being’s safety,health and well-being. This phenomenon of “dissemination”results from the following two aspects: the objective and the subjective sides. The former lies in human being’s limitation of cognition, and the latter lies in the misinterpretation of engineering as a profession due to the internal value orientation of the subject or the external systems. In our modern society, with engineering activities as important driving force, it is especially needed that the subject of the engineering behaviors always put the “people oriented”idea at the initial position and therefore fulfill their professional duties without misconducts.

Our country has stepped onto the crucial stage of transforming from a big engineering country to a real engineering power, and striving for building a well-off society in an all-round way. But the fact can not be neglected that the level of engineering professionalization is still very low, and those engineers are still not well-reputed. This is a major practical issue which calls for the fields of engineering, engineering education and even all walks of life to deeply understand the implication of engineering as profession, to cultivate the sense of engineering professional duties and to put into practive the responsibilities of engineering profession. However, the undergraduate education, which is the initial period of cultivating occupation consciousness, to a large extent neglect the education of occupation ethics, and as the important promoter of practicing occupation duties, the engineering professional organizations are busying handling the extensive growth of the economy and therefore leads to the underdevelopment of self-government and the low level of professionalization.

Education of professional ethics for engineering students in China mainly depends on ideo-political education. Engineering practice in China has put forward the issue of strengthening the cultivation of professional ethics among those engineering students, the contents of the education of professional ethics for the engineering students are not to the point, the research on engineering ethics has just started, and the key value of engineering ethics education has not taken tangible shape. Basing on the above-mentioned facts and profound investigations, this dissertation puts forward the key engineering value, i.e. engineering ethics, oriented towards the professional ethics education for the engineering students in China. Methodologies of this study include survey analysis, the methods of dialectical and historical materialist point of view, case analysis, value analysis, and adopting an analysis model of responsibility theory and value theory, the dissertation elaborates the concept of engineering ethics from five aspects:

Chapter One is the introductory part of the dissertation. Following an introduction of the background and the significance of the study, it provides a detailed review of the previous studies on this topic home and abroad, and the methodology of the study is also included here.

Chapter Two is the basic theory of engineering ethics, including the definition of engineering ethics, its interpretation from the perspective of value and responsibility, the major contents and their inner logic, the general characteristics and major functions of engineering ethics.

Chapters 3-7 are the core contents of engineering ethics:

Chapter Three is about the idea that engineering is people oriented, i.e. engineering benefits human being, which is on the basis of the sociality of engineering and the present situation of the occupation ideas and faith of the engineers and the engineering students. People orientation of engineering is the general term for those actions which conform to the general principle that all engineers and engineering as an occupation should base their actions on the safety, health and benefits of the public and the whole human society. This concept aims at helping the engineering students to understand the necessity to correctly handle the relationship between the would-be engineers as an individual and the public (human being), and the relationship between those engineers as a professional whole and the public (human being). The key point lies in the understanding the responsibility of engineers and the occupation to the social public (human being), which includes not only the pursuit of the value of people orientation, but also the mastery of advanced technologies, the prevention and control of risks, and the values of resources saving and environmental protection.

Chapter Four is on the idea of engineering reputation with integrity as its soul. This concept is based on the analysis of the characteristics of engineering as an occupation and the present situation of the ill-famed domestic engineers and the lack of the quality of integrity among some of the engineering students’daily conducts. Engineering reputation is the general term for the actions taken by the engineers to keep a good reputation and win the trust of the public. This concept aims at helping those engineering students to cope with the relationship between an engineer as an individual and the engineers as a whole in their future engineering practice. The key point lie in the understanding of engineers doing their special duties, which include not only the value orientation of keeping a good reputation, but also the measures to achieve integrity.

Chapter Five is on the idea of loyalty to Party A, “the master”. This concept is based on the analysis of the characteristics of engineering organization culture and the fact that some of the domestic engineers are incapable of handling the relationship between themselves and their supervisors and some of the engineering students, affected by utilitarian ideas, adopt a distorted value. Loyalty is the general term for those actions taken by the engineers to fairly safeguard the interests of Party A, but take into consideration of the interests of other parties. This concept aims at helping the engineering students to cope with the relationship between themselves and Party A (employers, clients, supervisors, investors and other agents). The key point lies in the engineers taking responsibility for Party A, on the condition that the public’s safety, health and benefits are safeguarded, which include not only the obligational value orientation to maintain the interests of Part A, but also the measures of overall consideration and prudent accusation.

Chapter Six is on the idea of cooperation, the key to which is treating coworkers as equals. This concept is based on the analysis of the complexity of engineering and the present situation that some of the young technicians lack the spirit of cooperation and some engineering students lack the spirit of team work. Cooperation is the general term for those actions taken by the engineers to work together with other colleagues. This concept aims at helping the engineering students to cope with the relationship with their cooworkers. The key point lies in the engineers doing their duties on their colleagues, which include not only the orientation of equality and mutual benefit, and sharing, but also the measures of the respecting intellectual property rights, and team work, etc.

Chapter Seven is on the idea of self-government, with the engineering students’education of professional ethics as the source power. This concept is basied on the analysis of the engineering’s requirements of independent judgment and basic education of those employees, and the present comparatively low level of professionalization in engineering, and the marginalization of the engineering undergraduates’education of professional ethics - the starting period of their cultivation of professional duties. Self-government in engineering is the general term for the actions taken by those engineers who received higher education and education of professional ethics and those as an occupational whole to practice their own independent engineering values. This concept aims at helping the engineering students know the responsibilities for themselves and the meaning of the occupation to themselves, giving prominence to the requirement of localization of engineering ethics norms with the consolidation of engineering values as the essence, emphasizing on the effect of engineering students’education of professional ethics with the internalization of engineering values as the basic characteristics.