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A Pragmatic Approach to Ethical Decision-Making in Engineering Practice: Characteristics, Evaluation Criteria, and Implications for Instruction and Assessment

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Abstract

This paper begins by reviewing dominant themes in current teaching of professional ethics in engineering education. In contrast to more traditional approaches that simulate ethical practice by using ethical theories to reason through micro-level ethical dilemmas, this paper proposes a pragmatic approach to ethics that places more emphasis on the practical plausibility of ethical decision-making. In addition to the quality of ethical justification, the value of a moral action also depends on its effectiveness in solving an ethical dilemma, cultivating healthy working relationships, negotiating existing organizational cultures, and achieving contextual plausibility in everyday professional practice. This paper uses a cross-cultural ethics scenario to further elaborate how a pragmatic approach can help us rethink ethical reasoning, as well as ethics instruction and assessment. This paper is expected to be of interest to educators eager to improve the ability of engineers and other professional students to effectively and appropriately deal with the kinds of everyday ethical issues they will likely face in their careers.

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Notes

  1. For instance, Vesilind and Gunn’s book Engineering, Ethics, and the Environment (1998) considers “applying” classical ethical theories as a way for engineers to practice environmental ethics. A few other examples that propose applying classical ethical theories include Mitcham and Duval’s book Engineering Ethics (1999) and Catalano’s book Engineering Ethics: Peace, Justice, and the Earth (Second Edition) (2014).

  2. The three dimensions were derived from a separate study that compared expert and novice responses to these cross-cultural engineering ethics scenarios. Results from this study will be reported in a separate paper.

  3. Examples include cultural tools in organizational and local contexts.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments which significantly improved the quality of this paper. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 17th International Conference on Ethics Across the Curriculum in Greenville, South Carolina, October 8–10, 2015. These materials are based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1160455. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ethics Across Campus Program, Division of Liberal Arts and International Studies, Colorado School of Mines, 322 Stratton Hall, 1005 14th Street, Golden, CO, 80401, USA

    Qin Zhu

  2. School of Engineering Education, Purdue University, 1313 Armstrong Hall, 701 West Stadium Avenue, West Lafayette, IN, 47907-2045, USA

    Brent K. Jesiek

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  1. Qin Zhu
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Correspondence to Qin Zhu.

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Zhu, Q., Jesiek, B.K. A Pragmatic Approach to Ethical Decision-Making in Engineering Practice: Characteristics, Evaluation Criteria, and Implications for Instruction and Assessment. Sci Eng Ethics 23, 663–679 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-016-9826-6

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