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ENGINEERING ETHICS:

PEACE, JUSTICE, AND

THE EARTH

Copyright © 2006 by Morgan & Claypool

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other

except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Engineering Ethics: Peace, Justice, and the Earth

George D. Catalano

www.morganclaypool.com

1598290908 paper

1598290916 ebook

DOI 10.2200/S00039ED1V01Y200606ETS001

A Publication in the Morgan & Claypool Publishers’ series

SYNTHESIS LECTURES ON ENGINEERING, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

Sequence in Series: Lecture #1

First Edition

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America

ENGINEERING ETHICS:

PEACE, JUSTICE, AND

THE EARTH

George D. Catalano

State University of New York at Binghamton

SYNTHESIS LECTURES ON ENGINEERING, TECHNOLOGY

AND SOCIETY #1

&

MC Morgan &Claypool Publishers

iv

ABSTRACT

A response of the engineering profession to the challenges of security, poverty and

under-development, and environmental sustainability is described. Ethical codes,

which govern the behavior of engineers, are examined from a historical perspective

linking the prevailing codes to models of the natural world. A new ethical code based

on a recently introduced model of Nature as an integral community is provided and

discussed. Applications of the new code are described using a case study approach.

With the ethical code based on an integral community in place, a new design

algorithm is developed and also explored using case studies. Implications of the

proposed changes in ethics and design on engineering education are considered.

KEYWORDS

Engineering ethics, models of the natural world, engineering design, engineering

education

With gratitude and appreciation for my family and all my two and four legged

friends and spiritual directors.

vi

Contents

1. Introduction ........................................................1

1.1 The Challenge of Security . ....................................2

1.2 The Challenge of Poverty and Under-Development ..............3

1.3 The Challenge of Environmental Sustainability ..................7

1.4 Other Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.5 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2. Engineering Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.1 Historical Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.2 Reviewing Today’s Codes of Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2.3 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3. Models of the Earth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

3.1 Earth as Great Chain of Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

3.2 Earth as Mechanical Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

3.3 Earth as Living System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

3.4 Earth as Self-Organizing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

3.5 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

4. Engineering in a Morally Deep World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

4.1 Borrowing from Environmental Ethics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

4.2 Case Study 1: Wolves in the Southwestern U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

4.3 A New Engineering Ethic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4.4 Case Study 2: A Plow for Mexican Peasant Farmers . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

4.5 Case Study 3: A Ticket Tearing Device for a Disabled Person . . . 38

4.6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

5. Engineering Design in a Morally Deep World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

5.1 Overview of Traditional Engineering Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

5.2 Eco-Effective Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

5.3 A Design Algorithm for a Morally Deep World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

5.4 Case Study 1: Grape Workers in Northern California . . . . . . . . . . . 47

CONTENTS vii

5.5 Case Study 2: Transporting Tourists in Cape Churchill . . . . . . . . . 51

5.6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

6. Implications for Engineering Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

6.1 A New Paradigm for Engineering Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

6.1.1 Living in Peace with Ourselves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

6.1.2 Living in Peace with Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

6.1.3 Living in Peace with the Planet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

6.2 Accreditation Codes and Modifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

6.3 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

7. Final Thoughts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61