Do Engineers Have Social Responsibilities?

Do Engineers Have Social Responsibilities? “People enjoy what technology can do for them while often ignoring what it can do to them” --Edward Wenk

What does “having” social responsibilities mean? • It means a commitment from the engineering profession, and, by proxy, the individual engineers who belong to the profession, to place the public safety and interest ahead of all other considerations and obligations (with certain caveats to be explained later). • It means that engineers take into account and show due regard for the consequences of their conduct for the well-being of others as well as for the impact of their work on society and the citizenry. • This requires the engineer to make determined efforts to discover all of the relevant facts concerning the design, development, and deployment and all of the possible outcomes of the choices available that may positively and negatively affect/impact society and the citizenry

Social Responsibilities of Engineers (Some Examples) • Ensure the safety and well-being of the public • Ensure that society’s funds and resources concerning technology are well used • Refusing to work on a particular project or for a particular company • Speaking out publicly against a proposed project • Blowing the whistle on illegality or wrong-doing • Professional Societies’ obligation to provide protection for whistleblowers • Individual and organizational concern about the impact of engineering projects on society • Contributing one’s services to worthy, non-profit groups and projects • Engineering schools’ commitment to educating future engineers about their social responsibilities

Social Responsibilities of Engineers (Some Examples) • Commitment of engineering professions and organizations to principles of social responsibility • Commitment of risk assessment experts to ethical risk/safety assessments • Actively promote the ethical development and use of technology • Voluntarily assume the task of educating the public about important consequences of various technological and scientific developments • Commitment of engineers to design and develop sustainable technologies • Provide expert advice to non-experts • Take part in democratic procedures for technology decision making and policy management • Social activism of engineers in the public Interest • Explicit care and concern about technology’s impact on Nature and the Environment • Abiding by the principles of sustainable development when thinking about engineering designs • Abiding by the “precautionary principle” when thinking about engineering designs • In engineering design, engineers have practiced social responsibility by applying factors of safety to their designs and by building in redundancy

Engineering Social Responsibility • Why do engineers have the responsibility to think about the interaction of technology and society? • One reason: Because engineers are the ones who create all of the technology • Responsible moral beings are supposed to think about the effects of their own actions and creations especially if they impact others • Possible response: “but engineers and scientists, like professionals in general, are supposed to implement the goals of their employers and clients, not decide what those goals should be”

Arguments that Engineers Don’t (Shouldn’t/Couldn’t) Have Social Responsibilities • Engineering is not a true profession so society should not expect that engineers have social responsibilities like the other “true” professions • Engineering is a value-free enterprise that deals only in objective facts • Engineers are not qualified to make ethical judgments on behalf of society so it is unfair to think they should or could • The nature of engineer-manager relations in large organizations • Engineers lack decision-making autonomy and power

Arguments that Engineers Don’t (Shouldn’t/Couldn’t) Have Social Responsibilities (Argument One) • Engineering is not a true profession and so society shouldn’t hold the profession of engineering, or individual engineers, to higher ethical standards as it does other true professions such as medicine, law, and university professors • Professions have social responsibilities but engineering is not a profession like medicine and law and so it does not have the same, higher, social responsibilities • Engineering does not serve a crucial social need and high ends that is the basis of an implicit social contract • Engineering is not given the same privileges other professionals so there is not a social contract that promotes engineering social responsibility

Engineers Don’t (Shouldn’t/Couldn’t) Have Social Responsibilities: Argument One • Differences between engineers and other professionals such as medicine, law, university professors, etc. • Such professions serve crucial social needs and high ends such as Health (Doctors), Truth and Knowledge (Professors), Social Justice (Lawyers) • Society grants special privileges to such groups for socially recognized essential needs • Engineering lacks such ends, privileges, and protections • Engineers lack legal and quasi-legal protections to do or refrain from performing certain actions: for example, professors (academic freedom), journalists (sources), and clergy and psychiatrists (confidentiality) Counterargument • The professionalization of engineering • Engineering does serve crucial social needs • Material well-being through technological systems and artifacts

Engineers Don’t (Shouldn’t/Couldn’t) Have Social Responsibilities: Argument Two • Engineers maintain a value-free objectivity following a scientific methodology absent of any subjectivity • To make individual engineers socially responsible is to inject a radical, arbitrary, and precarious subjectivity based on the “whims” of individual engineers • "...engineering ethics is not, or should not be a medium for expressing one’’s personal opinions about life. " "Engineers do not have the responsibility, much less the right, to establish goals for society." (Florman, p. 95) Counterargument • Engineers, because they know the technology at the most intimate level, are aware of its risks and limits as well as its benefits • Engineers could be educated to become more aware of their ethical responsibilities and how to make ethically responsible decisions regarding its design, development, and deployment

Engineers Don’t (Shouldn’t/Couldn’t) Have Social Responsibilities: Argument Three • The individual engineer is not qualified to make judgments as to the ethical acceptability or unacceptability of technology • The choices as to which technology should be designed or built can only be made on the basis of systems of human values incapable of validation by the scientific and/or the engineering method • “It is not the engineer's job, in his or her daily work, to second-guess prevailing standards of safety or pollution control, nor to challenge democratically established public policy." (Florman) Counterargument • Is this a subterfuge for inaction?” • Engineers cannot escape social responsibilities for choice of action by alleging some kind of objectivity not possessed by the layperson or lay citizenry or by claiming incompetence and/or ignorance as to the social impact of his/her design, and the corresponding public sentiment about it. • Whose interests does it serve? Does it serve corporate interests at the expense of the interests of the public when it comes to risk or harm to the citizenry? • Is this an abdication of responsibility?

Engineer-Manager Relations in Large Corporations or Organizations: Argument Four The “Received View”: • The corporate engineer lacks the sufficient autonomy necessary to be responsible and ethical • The engineer is in constant conflict with management who often ends up overriding engineering judgment concerning engineering designs because of their incessant pursuit of the bottom line • Lack of professional autonomy leaves scant room for ethical decision making (but not ethical judgment)

Engineer-Manager Relations in Large Corporations or Organizations: Argument Four (cont.) • Engineers are a captive profession in a highly compartmentalized work environment. • Managers choose what to do, divide work up into small groups, and assign each engineer to a particular one • Communication between engineers and managers is kept to a minimum to assure management control • Engineers identify options, test them, and report the work to managers • Managers combine these reports with business information they alone have. • Managers decide, engineers merely advise

Engineer-Manager Relations in Large Corporations or Organizations : Argument Four (cont.) • Corporate engineers are used as “hired hands” who develop technology with the sole purpose of advancing the economic demands of the corporation or client • Engineers are not independent professionals—They are employees • Emerging from the canal and railway building enterprises of the nineteenth century American engineering is a creature of large bureaucratic organizations—individual engineers were the original “organization man”

The concept of “Organization Man” • This term was coined in the 1960s when sociological analyses of bureaucracies were conducted • An “organization man” is someone who represses or suppresses his or her individual desires and values and molds their personal behavior to conform to the demands of the organization he or she works for; a conformist • Another definition is a employee of large corporations who has adapted so completely to what is expected in attitudes, ideas, and behaviors of the corporation so that they lose a sense of personal identity or independence • Someone who so fully adapts that their personal identity and values are absorbed by organizational objectives and values • Someone who sacrifices his or her own individuality for what is perceived as the good of the organization

Engineer-Manager Relations in Large Corporations or Organizations: Counterargument Recent research: The Received View is False • Instead of rigid hierarchical and compartmentalized decision making process of the received view • There exists a highly fluid process depending heavily on meetings and less formal exchange of information across departmental boundaries • Managers seemed to have little control over what information would reach the engineers • Managers are anxious to get engineers to hook up with one another for collaboration

Arguments/rationales for the Social Responsibility of Engineers • Codes of Ethics • Professionalism • Social Contract Model • Engineering Societies • Principle of Proportionate Care • Engineering as Social Experimentation • The Intrinsic Purpose of Engineering Itself • The Impacts of Technology on Society

Rationales for Social Responsibility of Engineers • Fundamental Canons (NSPE) • Hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public • Perform services only in areas of their competence • Issue public statements only in an objective and truthful manner • Act for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees • Avoid deceptive acts

Rationales for Social Responsibility of Engineers • IEEE Code of Ethics • We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree: • 1. to accept responsibility in making decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment; • 5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences

Engineering Codes of Ethics • ASCE Code of Ethics • Fundamental Canon 1.Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development in the performance of their professional duties. • Software Engineering Code of Ethics • Principle1.03. Approve software only if they have a well-founded belief that it is safe, meets specifications, passes appropriate tests, and does not diminish quality of life, diminish privacy or harm the environment. The ultimate effect of the work should be to the public good.

IEEE Code of Ethics for Engineers ARTICLE IV • Engineers shall, in fulfilling their responsibilities to the community: • Protect the safety, health and welfare of the public and speakoutagainstabusesin these areas affecting the public interest; • Contribute professional advice, as appropriate, to civic, charitable or other non-profit organizations; • Seek to extend public knowledge and appreciation of the engineering profession and its achievements

Professionalism WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL? Originally, one who professed adherence to monastic vows of a religious order. * a free act of commitment to a specific way of life * allegiance to high moral standards * skill, knowledge, practice of an art WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL? Today, it is one who is “duly qualified” in a specific field * special theoretical knowledge or education * appropriate experience * knowledge and skills vital to the well-being of a large potion of society * Professional organization and a code of ethic * special social sanction

Models of Professionalism Business Model * professional status provides economic gain * monopoly provides for high pay * self-regulation avoids government regulation

MODELS OF PROFESSIONALISM Social Contract Model • Professionals are guardians of the public trust • Professions are social institutions—they are organized by some act of society and are granted special powers in return for socially beneficial goods and services (Licensure) • An implicit, unstated agreement exists between professional and society • Society may subsidize training of professionals

The Implicit Contract Between Society and the Engineering Profession Society agrees to: * allow a certain autonomy - freedom of self-regulation - freedom to choose clients * social status - respect from society, titles * high remuneration - reward for services - attract competent individuals • Society grants the professions the autonomy to define their own norms of behavior and action because it values their knowledge and the discretion to use it towards some socially recognized ends • Society gives professions and professionals special powers not granted to ordinary citizens to perform their socially defined roles

The Implicit Contract Between Society and the Engineering Profession Professionals agree to: * provide a service - for the public well-being - promote public welfare, even at own expense * self-regulation - enforce competence - enforce ethical standards

The Implicit Contract Between Society and the Engineering Profession • Clients place their trust not only in individual professionals but also in the professional organization and they trust professionals because the exercise of professional discretion at the individual level is governed by rules which are prescribed and enforced by the group • By developing codes of professional ethics a profession can be said to have acknowledged an organizational responsibility to evaluate individual behavior according to group norms (BER of NSPE) • The professions’ presumptive preference for self-regulation as an alternative to increased public control requires that they assume greater internal control over their affairs. This means that the profession of engineering has a strong responsibility to make sure that technology is produced that is good and beneficial to society, and technological goods should be distributed fairly and justly among all members of our society

The Implicit Contract Between Society and the Engineering Profession • Self regulation places the burden of proof collectively on the organization to ensure that individual members are technically competent to perform their duties according to high ethical standards and that engineers have genuine concern for how technology impacts society, both negatively as well as positively • To voluntarily claim the benefits of a profession a member of that profession is obligated to follow the rules and norms of that profession—If not, they would be taking unfair advantage of a voluntary cooperative practice

Principle of Proportionate Care • Principle of Due Care: • “All things being equal, one should exercise due care to avoid contributing to significantly harming others” • Principle of Proportionate Care • “When one is in a position to contribute to greater harm or when one is in a position to play a more critical part in producing harm than is another person, one must exercise greater care to avoid so doing” • If doctors fail to do their job with technical competency or ethical commitment, an individual may be harmed or killed • If engineers fail to do their job with technical competency or commitment to ethics, dozens, hundreds, even thousands may be harmed or killed

Principle of Proportionate Care • To the extent that the engineers, due to their special knowledge of technology, and the fact that technology could be risky and dangerous, could harm society, they must exercise due care in the practice of their profession. • The more engineers are in a position to harm society, the more they should be held to a higher ethical standard • Society requires this in order to ensure the safe and reliable design, development, and deployment of technological systems and artifacts

Principle of Proportionate Care • There is a direct relationship between their ability to cause harm and the need to hold engineers to the highest of ethical standards High Level of Harm High Level of Ethics Potential to cause harm Level of Ethical Standard

The Separatist Thesis: The Special Obligations of Professional Engineers • A good starting point for deciding whether anyone has a special moral obligation to others is to ask whether s/he is especially well placed to benefit or harm them…The outcome of scientific work can often have great impact for good or ill on other people. Quite frequently scientists can predict this outcome earlier and more accurately than others. Sometimes they can even modify the results. One could claim therefore, that engineers are in one of those special positions which give them special obligations”) • Examples: Columbia Tragedy, Challenger Disaster, DC-10 Crashes, Ford Pinto Rear End Collisions. • Example: Physicians and nurses have a special obligation to use their knowledge and skills to improve the health of their patients

The Intrinsic Nature of Engineering There are two general types of definitions of engineering: The NarrowDefinition and the BroadDefinition The Narrow Definition • Engineering is the application of scientific and mathematical principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economic structures, machines, processes, and systems • Engineering is the art or science of making practical application of the knowledge of pure sciences, as physics, chemistry, biology, etc. --Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary • Engineering is the science and art of efficient dealing with materials and forces ... it involves the most economic design and execution ... assuring, when properly performed, the most advantageous combination of accuracy, safety, durability, speed, simplicity, efficiency, and economy possible for the conditions of design and service. • Engineering is the practical application of science to commerce or industry • "Engineering design is the systematic, intelligent generation and evaluation of specifications for artifacts whose form and function achieve stated objectives and satisfy specified constraints."

The Intrinsic Nature of Engineering The Broad Definition • The engineer is one who is claimed to possess specialized knowledge, esp. as regards the treating of human problems by scientific or technical means. • "Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of natural resources to the benefit of man.“ • Engineering is the profession that puts power and materials to work for the benefit of mankind

The Intrinsic Nature of Engineering The Broad Definition • Engineering is the application of science to the common purpose of life. • Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man. • Engineering is the art of organizing and directing men and controlling the forces and materials of nature for the benefit of the human race. • Engineering is the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind. --Engineers Council for Professional Development (1961/1979)

The Intrinsic Nature of Engineering The Broad Definition • The engineer is the key figure in the material progress of the world. It is his engineering that makes a reality of the potential value of science by translating scientific knowledge into tools, resources, energy and labor to bring them into the service of man ... To make contributions of this kind the engineer requires the imagination to visualize the needs of society and to appreciate what is possible as well as the technological and broad social…understanding to bring his vision to reality.

Engineering and Society • “Engineering is a great profession. There is a fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge, through the aid of science, to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs home to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comfort of life. That is the engineer's high privilege….To the engineer falls the job of clothing the bare bones of science with life, comfort, and hope…” --Herbert Hoover (US mining engineer & 3ist President of the US) (1874 - 1964)

Defining Engineering • “Engineering is that profession in which knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind.” (The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology – ABET, 1992) • “Engineering is the application of scientific and mathematical principles to practical ends such as the design, manufacture, and operation of efficient and economical structures, machines, processes, and systems.” • “Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and the convenience of people. In its modern form engineering involves people, money, materials, machines, and energy. It is differentiated from science because it is primarily concerned with how to direct to useful and economical ends the natural phenomena which scientists discover and formulate into acceptable theories. Engineering therefore requires above all the creative imagination to innovate useful applications of natural phenomena. It seeks newer, cheaper, better means of using natural sources of energy and materials.” (Science and Technology Encyclopedia, McGraw Hill) • Engineering is the professional art of applying science to the optimum conversion of the resources of nature to the uses of humankind. (Encyclopedia Britannica) • Engineering is the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources of energy in nature are made useful to people (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Defining Engineering • “ Scientist discovers that which exists. An engineer creates that which never was” • Theodore von Karman (1881-1963)

Engineering and Ethics • If we accept these definitions of engineering, it is crucial to realize the centrality of ethical concerns at the core of the engineering enterprise • Concern for social well being and humanity are part of the very definition of engineering • Assuming the intellectual rigor of these definitions, the need of ethics in engineering id nothing superfluous or added, but it is the essence of the engineering profession

Engineering and Social Values • Today the consequences of human creativity in the areas of engineering, technology, and science have reached measures that only a few decades ago were unimaginable (e.g., genetic engineering, biotechnology, nanotechnology, information technologies, artificial intelligence) • This capacity and development mean an enormous amount of Power • “Knowledge is Power” (Francis Bacon, 16??) • With Power comes Responsibility • Knowledge implies responsibility – the obligations of the engineer must be commensurate with the level of his or her knowledge and power • With Responsibility comes Obligation and Accountability • The fact of living in a complex, global, and intercultural world coupled with the unquestionable technological power wielded by governments and societies • Makes it necessary that engineers amplify the horizon of their technical knowledge with humanistic values and harmonize their specialized formation and development with knowledge of the norms, principles, and ideals of ethics

Engineering and Social Values • In view of the enormous power of technology and science and the enormous potential risks they pose, it is indispensable to stimulate and develop the consciousness of the moral responsibility of engineers • There exists an urgent need to complement technical knowledge with the development of values, attitudes, and knowledge that facilitate professional and ethical excellence • It is necessary to develop social skills and team work based in the respect for the proper values of civic and social ethics

Engineering Ethics • Engineering ethics is derived from the awesome power of modern technology • The institutionalization of engineering ethics is a social necessity due to the fact that the actions of engineers can have such enormous impact on the lives of individuals, states, cultures, the environment, and the entire planet • An engineer is a professional who uses technologies—and the knowledge that he possesses of diverse technical systems: objects of all kinds, and in particular, machines, tools and systems—to create other technical systems that satisfy human needs and well-being • It is necessary to develop with rigor and depth a concept of ethics and responsibility commensurate with our immense technological powers in order to advance to a safer and more just world

SONG OF THE ENGINEER I take the vision which comes from dreams And apply the magic of science and mathematics Adding the heritage of my profession And my knowledge of Nature’s materials To create a design. I organize the efforts and skills of my fellow workers Employing the capital of the thrifty And the products of many industries And together we work toward our goal Undaunted by hazards and obstacles. And when we have completed our task All can see That the dreams and plans have materialized For the comfort and welfare for all. I am an Engineer. I serve mankind By making dreams come true. (Unknown Author)

Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century • The National Academy of Engineering published a list of the 20th century's most notable engineering achievements. Some of the top achievements include: • electrification --automobile • airplane --water supply and distribution electronics --radio and television • Computers --agricultural mechanization • Spacecraft --household appliances • internet; telephone --highways; imaging • health technologies --petroleum technologies • high-performance materials.

Definitions of Engineering Ethics • “The study of the cases and moral decisions that face individuals and organizations in the field of engineering; as well as the study of questions relative to the moral ideals, character, and political relations between persons and corporations involved in technolgocial activities” (Lenk, 1997)

The Purpose of Engineering Ethics • The subject matter of engineering ethics can neither consist of a set of procedures or concrete values that are applied mechanically in problematic situations nor the inculcation into a certain set of beliefs • The purpose of engineering ethics is to increase the skill of moral judgment and to develop the moral autonomy of the engineer • To improve the skills necessary to think critically about the ethical aspects and consequences of engineering design and work

Why Engineering Ethics? • Stressing the role of ethics in the study and practice of engineering has at least three important consequences: • It stimulates the recognition of the complexity of ethical issues in engineering • It generates better skills at responding to and solving moral problems • It shows that society considers ethics as essential to the formation of excellent and outstanding professionals

Objectives of Engineering Ethics • To compliment the technical knowledge derived from engineering education with the development of moral values and the capacity for sound moral judgment • To compliment the technical perspective with ethical analysis that leads to more responsible decision making • Develop ethical decision making in engineering that will attend to the exigency of universal moral principles and not only to the force of legislation, the law, or fear of punishment • To increase knowledge about the duties, obligations and moral responsibilities of engineers in the practice of their professional labor • To promote the knowledge and development of professional virtues in order to produce excellent engineers that are committed to, and contribute to, social progress and social justice

Reintegrating Engineering and Philosophy • “…Today's conflicts between the views that the humanities hold of science and engineering and the views science and engineering hold of the humanities weaken the very core of our culture. Their cause is lack of integration in today's education among subjects…A new…[multidisciplinary model]…is needed to provide every educated person with a basic understanding of the endeavors and instruments that help us address our world and shape a new morality-the humanities, in the noblest sense of the word, to civilize, science to understand nature, and engineering, broadly defined, to encompass the kindred activities that modify nature. Integration of these endeavors is urgent…No domain can any longer be considered and learned in isolation...” • George Bugliarello,

Engineering Science Humanities The Segregation of Academic Disciplines/Fields of Study Natural Science Humanities Where should we put the academic study of Engineering on this continuum?

Do Engineers Have Social Responsibilities?