The following series of engineering ethics cases were created by interviewing numerous engineers from Silicon Valley and beyond.
The cases have been written, anonymized, and honed to highlight the ethical content from each interview. While these cases are meant for engineering students and professionals for their professional development, nearly all of the cases occur in the context of business, and therefore are also relevant for those seeking business ethics cases.
These cases are suitable as homework and/or for classroom discussion. The goal of this project is to acquaint engineering students and professionals with the variety of ethical experiences of engineering as practiced “in the field.” By becoming familiar with problems faced by other engineers we hope to thereby prepare those reading these cases if they too encounter difficult ethical dilemmas in their work.
Cases range from the mundane to the deadly. While we do not reveal how each particular case turned out, in general they turned out well – the people involved made the right decisions. But this is not to say that all of these right decisions came without personal cost. A few of the engineers did face negative repercussions and a very few even needed to find new employment. However, overall the interviewees were satisfied with how events turned out, even if they faced negative repercussions for their good decisions. They understood that doing the right thing is good in itself, regardless of the personal consequences they may have faced.
The engineering ethics cases can be sorted into the following categories:
The engineering ethics cases in this series were written by Santa Clara University School of Engineering students Clare Bartlett, Nabilah Deen, and Jocelyn Tan, who worked as Hackworth Engineering Ethics Fellows at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics over the course of the 2014-2015 academic year. In order to write these cases, the fellows interviewed numerous engineers and collected nearly 40 engineering ethics cases from Silicon Valley and beyond.The Hackworth Fellowships are made possible by a generous gift from Joan and the late Michael Hackworth.
FAQs
Particular areas of focus include AI ethics, space ethics, ethics of human enhancement and transhumanism, and global catastrophic and existential risk.
What are the 4 basic rules of ethics in engineering? ›
Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare.
What is ethical relativism Markkula Center for Applied Ethics? ›
Ethical relativism reminds us that different societies have different moral beliefs and that our beliefs are deeply influenced by culture. It also encourages us to explore the reasons underlying beliefs that differ from our own, while challenging us to examine our reasons for the beliefs and values we hold.
What is business ethics according to the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics? ›
by Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Business ethics is the application of moral reasoning to matters that arise in corporate life.
What are the 4 topics of ethics? ›
The key principles of clinical ethics, i.e., beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, and justice, may not be easily applied to a context and ethical decision-making has become more complicated. This is, in part, due to the rapid changes taking place in medicine today.
What are the five sources of ethical standards from the Markkula Center online presentation? ›
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University provides additional context and advice for ethical decision-making. They have identified five sources of ethical standards (the utilitarian approach, the rights approach, the fairness or justice approach, the common good approach, and the virtue approach.
What is the golden rule in engineering ethics? ›
The Golden Rule, or the rule of reciprocity, states that one should treat others as one would wish to be treated.
What are the 4 pillars of ethics? ›
Four Pillars of Medical Ethics
Beneficence (doing good) Non-maleficence (to do no harm) Autonomy (giving the patient the freedom to choose freely, where they are able) Justice (ensuring fairness)
What are the three types of engineering ethics? ›
We propose a theoretical framework based on the micro-macroethical framework by Herkert (2001) that engineering ethics consists of technical, professional, and social ethics [3]. ...
What is the Markkula model? ›
Introduction. The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics advocates that “Ethics really has to do with all these levels-acting ethically as individuals, creating ethical organizations and governments, and making our society as a whole ethical in the way it treats everyone,” (MCAE, 2009: 1).
Ethics is based on well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues.
What is an example of applied ethics? ›
What is applied ethics? Examples: the moral issues regarding… abortion euthanasia giving to the poor sex before marriage the death penalty gay/lesbian marriage (or other rights) war tactics censorship so-called “white lies” etc.
What are the basics of applied ethics? ›
Applied ethics, also called practical ethics, is the application of ethics to real-world problems. Practical ethics attempts to answer the question of how people should act in specific situations.
What is applied ethics explain the nature and scope of applied ethics? ›
In turn, the definition of applied ethics is a branch of ethics; it can also be called practical ethics and looks at real-world ethical problems in the hopes of resolving them using philosophical methods. Such problems arise not only in academic settings but in many areas of public or private life.
How can ethics be applied in the workplace? ›
When applying ethics into the workplace, one can exercise ethics by modeling them. For instance, if someone notices their coworker stealing, they can exercise their honest ethical standard and report them. One can show trustworthiness by listening to a coworker and promising to not share their hardships with others.
What is the topic of applied ethics? ›
Applied ethics, also called practical ethics, is the application of ethics to real-world problems. Practical ethics attempts to answer the question of how people should act in specific situations. For example, is it ethical for a business owner to bluff during negotiations with another company?
What is the Markkula model for ethical decision making? ›
The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics advocates that “Ethics really has to do with all these levels-acting ethically as individuals, creating ethical organizations and governments, and making our society as a whole ethical in the way it treats everyone,” (MCAE, 2009: 1).
What are the three fields within applied ethics? ›
By contrasting applied ethics with the other branches, one can get a better understanding what exactly applied ethics is about. The three branches are metaethics, normative ethics (sometimes referred to as ethical theory), and applied ethics. Metaethics deals with whether morality exists.
