Responsibility in Engineering: Toward a New Role for Engineering Ethicists

Doorn, Neelke; Fahlquist, Jessica Nihlén

doi:10.1177/0270467610372112

Cited by 26 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…RRI has also been defined as a "transparent, interactive process by which societal actors and innovators become mutually responsive to each other with a view to of people they may impact on or what environmental footprint they will have, that they assume responsibility for this, and that they aim not only, conservatively, at doing no harm to society, but also, progressively, at doing good (cf. [15]). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Company Strategies for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI): A Conceptual Model

et al. 2017

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Responsible research and innovation (RRI) has become an important topic in the academic community and in policy circles, but it has not yet been systematically included in the innovation process of companies. We discuss how companies can integrate RRI into their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and business strategy. To this end, we developed a conceptual model that links a company's RRI strategy to its context, and that helps to translate the RRI strategy into activities that result in RRI outcomes. We also propose a process for developing company-specific RRI key performance indicators (KPIs) that can support companies to measure RRI outcomes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Company Strategies for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI): A Conceptual Model

et al. 2017

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“…In this case, no one can be personally held responsible, even though the collective as a whole can be held responsible ). This view on engineering ethics has attracted increasing criticism for being too narrowly focused on wrongdoing and less on the more positive standards that responsible engineering requires (Doorn and Fahlquist 2010;Durbin 2008;Lynch and Kline 2000;Pritchard 2001).…”

Section: Moral Responsibility In Engineering Ethics: From Preventive mentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineers’ Moral Responsibility: A Confucian Perspective

Jing

Doorn

2019

Sci Eng Ethics

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Moral responsibility is one of the core concepts in engineering ethics and consequently in most engineering ethics education. Yet, despite a growing awareness that engineers should be trained to become more sensitive to cultural differences, most engineering ethics education is still based on Western approaches. In this article, we discuss the notion of responsibility in Confucianism and explore what a Confucian perspective could add to the existing engineering ethics literature. To do so, we analyse the Citicorp case, a widely discussed case in the existing engineering ethics literature, from a Confucian perspective. Our comparison suggests the following. When compared to virtue ethics based on Aristotle, Confucianism focuses primarily on ethical virtues; there is no explicit reference to intellectual virtues. An important difference between Confucianism and most western approaches is that Confucianism does not define clear boundaries of where a person's responsibility end. It also suggests that the gap between Western and at least one Eastern approach, namely Confucianism, can be bridged. Although there are differences, the Confucian view and a virtue-based Western view on moral responsibility have much in common, which allows for a promising base for culturally inclusive ethics education for engineers.

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“…Such attempts become even more controversial when faced with differing perceptions of the complicated, multifaceted nature of engineering practice (Clift 2011;Didier 2009;Doorn and Fahlquist 2010;Keulartz 2009;Kroes et al 2009; Van de Poel 2009;Waelbers 2009), so that the idea of organizing an optimized, overarching view of the values entailed in technology development processes seems idealistic, inaccessible, and perhaps nothing more than a blind alley, in the opinion of some scholars (see, e.g., Didier 2009;Keulartz 2009;Kroes et al 2009;Pitt 2011;Simon 1973Simon , 1976Simon , 1996Van de Poel 2009). In view of this, the main question to be dealt with in this article is how to tackle such difficulties and contribute to organizing those values in an overarching view, based on a concrete, practical foundation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technology Development as a Normative Practice: A Meaning-Based Approach to Learning About Values in Engineering—Damming as a Case Study

2017

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Engineering, as a complex and multidimensional practice of technology development, has long been a source of ethical concerns. These concerns have been approached from various perspectives. There are ongoing debates in the literature of the philosophy of engineering/technology about how to organize an optimized view of the values entailed in technology development processes. However, these debates deliver little in the way of a concrete rationale or framework that could comprehensively describe different types of engineering values and their multi-aspect interrelations in real engineering practices. Approaching engineering values from a meaning-based perspective, as in this paper, can be a reliable method of tackling such a controversial problem. This paper therefore proposes that technology development be considered a systemic normative practice and attempts to provide a comprehensive view of various built-in values, their different origins and features, and a way of prioritizing them in real engineering processes. Studying two cases of the Zayandeh Rood Dam and the Abbasi Dam will lead to practical insights into how to understand norms in technology development and incorporate them into engineering practice.

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Responsibility in Engineering: Toward a New Role for Engineering Ethicists

Cited by 26 publications

References 40 publications

Company Strategies for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI): A Conceptual Model

Company Strategies for Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI): A Conceptual Model

Engineers’ Moral Responsibility: A Confucian Perspective

Technology Development as a Normative Practice: A Meaning-Based Approach to Learning About Values in Engineering—Damming as a Case Study

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