Ethical Theories Explained

Ethical Theories

• Ethical theory is a comprehensive view on morality that clarifies, organizes, and guides moral reflection.
• A good ethical theory should provide a framework for making moral choices and resolving moral dilemmas, not a simple formula, but rather a comprehensive way to identify, structure, and integrate moral reasons.
• Ethical theories ground the requirements in engineering codes of ethics by reference to broader moral principles.
• Will discuss five types of ethical theories including utilitarianism, rights ethics, duty ethics, virtue ethics, and self-realization and self-interest.

Virtue Ethics

• Virtue ethics emphasizes character more than duties and rights.
• Character is the pattern of virtues (morally desirable features) and vices (morally undesirable features) in an individual.
• It involves developing and manifesting good character as defined by virtues-desirable habits or tendencies:
  • Action
  • Commitment
  • Motive
  • Attitude
  • Emotion
  • Ways of reasoning
  • Ways of relating to others
• The most important virtue is practical sense (morally good judgment), enabling discernment of the mean for all other virtues.
• The most comprehensive virtue for engineers is Responsible Professionalism.

Virtues in Engineering

• The most comprehensive virtue in engineering is responsible professionalism.
• This involves the following several criteria:
  • Vocation
  • Expertise
  • Self-governance
  • Public duty
• Types (umbrella) of virtues ethics:
  • Public well-being relates to public-spirited virtues
  • Professional competence relates to proficiency virtues
  • Cooperative practices relates to teamwork virtues
  • Personal integrity relates to self-governance virtues
• Public well-being virtues include that are focused on the good of clients and public. This involves:
  • Not harming others (general)
  • Actively preventing or removing harm to others
  • Promoting public safety (professional)
  • Generosity in volunteering and helping others (community)
  • Promoting justice in corporations and government (social)
• Professional competence virtues involve the mastery of technical skills that characterize good engineering.
  • Competence, preparation, diligence, and creativity are ways of morally activating technical proficiency
• Cooperative practices virtues include the ones that are especially important in enabling professionals to work successfully with other people. This involves:
  • Collegiality
  • Cooperativeness
  • Loyalty
  • Respect for legitimate authority
  • Leadership
  • Responsible exercise of authority
  • Ability to motivate others
• Personal integrity virtues are required to exercise moral responsibility. This involves:
  • Self-understanding
  • Good judgment
  • Commitment
  • Application
  • Self-discipline
  • Integrity
  • Honesty
  • Truthfulness
  • Trustworthiness

Florman: Competence and Conscientiousness

• There are several forms of virtue ethics.
• Samuel Florman focuses on loyalty to employers.
• Aristotle focuses on loyalty to community.
• For Florman, the essence of engineering is found in the virtue of being conscientious.
• Engineers that do their jobs well are morally good engineers and have the following virtues:
  • Competence
  • Reliability
  • Inventiveness
  • Loyalty to employers
  • Respect for laws and democratic processes
• Engineers should be accountable to laws and regulations, not to their own personal consciences.
• Competence means performing with requisite skill and experience, exercising due care, persistence, diligence, attention to detail, and creativity and innovative thinking.
• 98% of engineering failures are caused by incompetence; 2% are by greed, fraud, dishonesty, and other ‘everyday' wrongdoing, often combined with sloppiness, according to Florman.
• Loyalty means working in the best interests of the employer. It makes technological progress possible and requires engineers working loyally inside a corporation.
• Florman believes that duty to employers comes before everything else, including professional codes that require engineers to hold paramount public safety, health and welfare.
• Engineers that follow this approach would have their licenses revoked in certain cases.
• It can encourage engineers to passively accept any company directive and relying on the law alone to protect the public.

Aristotle: Community and the Golden Mean

• Defined the moral virtues as habits to reach a proper balance between extremes: This involves balance in conduct, emotion, desire, and attitude.

• The 'golden mean' is this balance between excess (too much) and deficiency (too little).

• 'Truthfulness' is the middle ground between revealing everything violating tact/confidentiality and revealing nothing (secrecy or lacking candor).

• Practical wisdom is morally good judgment which lets one determine the 'golden mean' for all the other virtues.

  • It comes out of the development of good habits as achieved through proper training within families and communities.

• Having these virtues makes it possible to help the community achieve the public good it needs and fulfill personal needs as humans, finding the golden mean of 'happiness' between community and personal needs.

• Alasdair MacIntyre applied Aristotle's ideas to professions as valuable social activities engaged in cooperative human activities.

  • Good is realized by trying to achieve relevant standards of excellence.

• Internal goods are so essential to a social activity that they define it (e.g. the products, activities, experiences related to engineering)

  • Community benefits
  • Personal benefits
  • Meaningful work

• External goods can be earned through engaging in social practices such as money, power, self-esteem, and prestige.

  • They can threaten internal goods, corrupting institutions and undermining social practices

• Standards of excellence allow internal goods to be achieved without compromising internal goods.

  • These standards include technical guidelines and professional codes of ethics, encourage high standards of practice & conduct, and include penalties for failure to perform.

• Social practices such as ones in engineering expand understanding, improve human life, and achieve public and private goods, making human progress possible.No ethical theory is without flaws, so virtue ethics needs refinements to manage two basic challenges:

  • This ethical theory lacks unity of the virtues, and virtues may cause conflict.
  • The ethical theory is (Dis-)unity of the virtues: we know that virtues can come into conflict with each other
    • Honesty can conflict with sensitivity
    • Strengths are always apparent in certain virtues only - For example, someone may be very honest only, or lack self-discipline

• Incompleteness: This ethical theory is too vague if used by itself, because it does not clearly define what each virtue encompasses

Self-Realization and Self-Interest

• All ethical theories do share a certain amount of focus on self-interest. Self-realization ethics place the most weight on doing good for oneself and having strong personal commitments
  • Utilitarianism accounts for the importance of the self in calculating what is the overall good for society
  • Rights ethics accounts for basic individual interest by claiming rights to have legitimate interests
  • Duty ethics accounts for the importance of self fulfillment by claiming duties towards oneself
  • Virtues ethics claims that self-realization is achieved by integrating with existing communities and social practices
  • This is an ethical theory that accounts for prioritizing self fulfillment; actions towards good for society are inherently linked to such
• Two versions of Self-Realization Ethics:
  • Ethical egoism focuses on self-driven ethics only intended each individual must prioritize their own interest first
  • Community-oriented ethics accounts for the concept that the self can only be fully realized if understood under positive and mutual relationships

Ethical Egoism

• Every person has a personal duty to prioritize self interest and aim to obtain personal wellbeing
  • In this regard, wellbeing is defined as having strong long term interests
• Self fulfilment that is defined as short term will not be ethically egoistic
  • Indulgence, immediate selfish demands or constant instant gratification are not key elements of ethical egoism
• Ethical realism could cause conflict with the values that are highly desired within engineering practices
  • In engineering, it is important that engineers consider ethical action that allows good impact toward community and society.
  • If self interest only were to be desired from an ethical point of view this could have adverse impacts

Argument's Support of Ethical Egoism

• The concept of having self-respect and the concept of portraying selflessness as a negative impact to self fulfilment have great importance
• Independence provides key value when engaging in self interest
  • Having a level of understanding and identifying interdependencies and vulnerabilities are both compatible to being kind towards others
• Arguing about if the world could become a better place, with certain influential figures positively providing good output, may be of importance
  • Ethical egoism may lead to people becoming better, however it does not support it itself since the ultimate value that is sought after is that of other people.

Support of Ethical Egoism based around human interaction and personal value

• Psychological egoism portrays that personal value is usually desired above all else.
  • Some argue many actions may be motivated simply as a result of personal values
• Arguing psychological motivation is tough to refute due to its ability to relate to any number of things, that being said many confusing factors can be the answer to motivation.
• Action typically has several different motives rather than as a result of only one intention.

Engineer Motives

• Following Self Interest follows a generally valid ethical structure, which is that personal interest does act as valid reason for motivation
  • Everyone's motives contain a component of self interest - this includes most people who provide care and love to their friendship circles.
• Regarding self interest motivation there tends to be predominant egoism and an egoistic desire to take care of ourselves first.
• Regarding the value of self interest, this also brings up mixed motives, with self interest acting as an important factor and most people caring about others
  • Engineers account for a variety of motives in this regard in the following:
    • Technical proficiency : Motivation to reach excellence within technical ability, in conjunction with the value of aesthetics within engineering such as form and function.
    • Compensation: motivation to earn social praise; engineers gain social reward such as job offers, acknowledgement and even power.
    • Moral Responsibility: The desire to earn accountability, and the responsibility to give respect and consideration in the benefit of others

Self-Realization and Personal Commitments

• It can be summarized through a direct quote from a particular philosopher "The 'individual' apart from the community is an abstraction. /: It is not anything real, and hence not anything that we can realize. …. I am myself by sharing with others "
• Individualism and being self-serving can be problematic at times but must be valued and nurtured through positive connections
  • The more "community" minded ethical code sees individual "self" value through caring actions and relationships

Community Commitments

• Individuals who pursue happiness through their own ways should be encouraged, but emphasize strong connections and love for social circles

Community Linkages

• Meaning and unique personal characteristics can both be tied to social circles

Personal Commitments

• Each individuals traits and who they intrinsically are are related to how relationships are formed and sustained over time
  • (Aesthetic, political, family, etc;)

Limited Commitments

• There tends to be limitations to how commitments need to be addressed, primarily based around ethical regulation, honesty in commitments and following values of justice.

Religious Factors

• It is also important to consider the value of religion to people in all facets of life.
  • Engineering should be applied in an effective manner but should not supersede and have detrimental side effects to culture and religion
• Aspects to religious consideration include religious beliefs, which can promote morally sound behaviour in many circumstances
  • Promote ethical action
  • Push for critical ethical feedback
  • Practice offering practical guidance
  • Demand standards for the intention of good behaviour
• There also tends to be particular Islamic values as stated as a pursuit of Ihsan that accounts for ethical behaviour.

In conclusion-How to choose ethics to follow

• Ethical studies and theory are intended to add critical analysis, consistency, and broad applicable and understanding with providing support with issues surrounding morality
• Valid and well established theory succeeds with this in mind
  • Clarity is of core relevance
  • Applicable core principals with internal soundness
  • Broad organization of values pertaining to ethics
  • Guidance in a manner that pushes for moral intentions

How is success reached?

• Codes of ethics and sources can generally provide valid structures of ethics, in this case, codes of ethics are not entirely consistent and may not work in numerous circumstances.
• They should be understood, applied, and utilized in relation to many varying situations.