Ethical issues in engineering design - 3TU.Centre for Ethics and ...

9 Towards warranted trust in engineers
In previous chapters, I have taken a descriptive stance towards engineering
design practice. I have described how engineers deal with ethical issues in
design processes and related this to Vicenti’s distinction between radical and
normal design. In this chapter I will make a tentative analysis of what moral
responsibility is required from engineers in design processes. This analysis will
be based on the trust relationship between the public and engineers and the
descriptions of engineering practice given in chapters 4 to 8. I have formulated
the hypothesis, in section 2.3.3, that trust in the engineers making a design is
warranted if the engineers (1) have good intentions (2) are competent and work
according to the relevant regulative framework and (3) the regulative framework
is adequate, e.g. it complies to Grunwald’s requirements. Note that these
conditions are conditions for warranted trust in engineers. It remains a question
as to whether the public actually trusts engineers even if these conditions are
met. According to Baier one cannot force another to trust someone [Baier, 1996].
So even if the above conditions are met the public can still be hesitant when it
comes to trusting design engineers. If however, the public trusts the engineers
to make a design and these conditions are met then the trust is assumed to be
warranted.
In the following I will assume that engineers act with goodwill towards
society and the public during a design process. This goodwill includes that
engineers use a regulative framework if available, applicable and adequate. With
regard to the required competence of engineers and the adequacy of regulative
frameworks, I will distinguish between radical and normal design. A start will be
made with formulating conditions for warranted trust in engineers making
normal designs in section 9.1. The same will be done for radical design in
section 9.2.
9.1 Normal design
Trust in engineers that make normal designs can be partly institutions-based
(see section 2.3.3). The results of the cases show that engineers indeed use
regulative frameworks in normal design and that regulative frameworks can be
expected to exist for most products. Trust in engineers making normal designs is
assumed to be warranted if engineers are (1) competent in using the regulative
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