Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011 - rees2009

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engineeringcentric journals and to philosophy journals, both those generally geared
toward ethics issues and otherwise. As a result, our preliminary analysis includes nearly
200 academic journal articles published since 1980, but those which have engineering
ethics as their primary topic, rather than a point made in passing, number far fewer. We
have paid particularly close attention to work published in Journal of Engineering
Education and Science and Engineering Ethics.
The goal of our search was to find as many items on the topic of engineering ethics as we
could. The goal of our analysis was to investigate the different ways in which the authors
of these works conceptualize and present engineering ethics. For the purposes of this
work-in-progress paper we will not attempt to describe or even categorize each item
turned up in our search, but rather demonstrate the major ways in which engineering
ethics is articulated or presented across the literature.
Major Findings
Books with engineering ethics as their primary subject matter are generally written in one
of two forms: a student-oriented textbook, or a more theoretical treatise.
The majority of these are written in the orientation of a textbook, with the aim of
providing useful materials or examples to students or teachers in the engineering
disciplines interested in learning at least the basics of engineering ethics. Indeed, all of the
landmark works mentioned above are specifically designed to be used as textbooks. For
example, Schlossberger (1993, p. 3) begins by stating “this book is a practical guide to
ethical decision making for practicing engineers and other in technologically oriented
business and industry.” Whitbeck (1998), in particularly innovative approach (more so
considering the year), says her book “is designed to be used with active learning
classroom exercises and makes extensive use of the resources on the WWW Ethics Center
for Engineering and Science [now onlineethics.org].” Nearly all of the other books
referenced have explicitly similar aims (see Harris, Pritchard, Rabins, 1997; Harris,
Pritchard, Rabins, 2005; Pinkus et al, 1997; Fleddermann, 2008; Humphreys, 1999; Flores,
1989; Martin & Schinzinger, 2004).
Generally, since engineering ethics textbooks describe their subject in many small pieces,
making it more easily digestible by students coming to the subject for the first time, they
also run the risk of not offering substantive philosophical justification for the ethical
importance of each aspect mentioned. (See Compartmentalization below).
In contrast, several of the books on engineering ethics are written as treatises, by single
authors, and contain extended treatments of their topic in a deeper, more philosophical,
more “academic” sense. These books make no claims to be for students directly but are
rather contributions to the field of engineering ethics theory, in the sense they aim to
develop the body of knowledge associated with the field. Spier’s (2001) book, Ethics, Tools,
and the Engineer, conveys a deep understanding of the moral importance of the engineer
stemming from Spier’s own background in biotechnology. The danger, he says, is that “all
tools can cause damage as well as benefit,” and our societies have to “come to terms with
such instruments.” Spier considers at length the ways in which engineering has related to
Proceedings of Research in Engineering Education Symposium 2011
Madrid, 4 th - 7 th October 2011