UNIT – II

ENGINEERING ETHICS

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UNIT 2 ENGINEERING ETHICS
Senses of ‘Engineering Ethics’-Variety of Moral
Issues-Types Of Inquiry-Moral Dilemmas- Moral
Autonomy-Kohlberg’s Theory-Gilligan’s Theory-
Consensus And Controversy- Professions And
Professionalism-Professional Ideals And Virtues-
Theories About Right Action-Self-Interest-Customs
And Religion-Uses Of Ethical Theories.

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CONTENTS
 Senses of ‘Engineering Ethics’
 Variety of Moral Issues
 Types of inquiry
 Moral dilemmas
 Moral autonomy
 Kohlberg’s theory
 Gilligan’s theory
 Professions and professionalism
 Professional ideals and virtues
 Theories about right action
 Self-interest
 Customs and religion
 Uses of ethical theories
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SENSES OF ETHICS
• Ethics is an activity of
– Understanding the moral values
– Resolve the moral issues
– Justify the moral judgment
• Ethics refers to a set of beliefs, attitudes, and
habits that a person or group displays Concerning
morality.
• Ethics is a purely factual matter about explaining
beliefs and actions related to morality.
• Ethics refers to being “morally correct”
– People’s action can be spoken as “ethical” or
“unethical”
– Individuals can be evaluated as “ethical” or
“unethical”

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WHAT IS ENGINEERING ETHICS
 Engineering Ethics is an activity of
 Understanding the moral values that
ought to guide the engineering
profession
 Resolve the moral issues in the
profession
 Justify the moral judgment
concerning the profession.

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 Department of Information Technology

MORALITY
 Morality is concerned with
principles and practices of morals
such as:
 What ought or ought not to be done in
a given situation?
 What is right or wrong about the
handling of a situation?
 What is good or bad about the people,
policies, and ideals involved?

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MORALITY VS. ETHICS

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MORAL REASONING
• “Engineering design is a good one”
– Meets Specifications – Technical Value

– Specifications has moral content - Moral Reasons

• Designed in such a way that a safe, reliable and

environmental friendly product can be produced

• Moral Reasons
– Require us to respect other people as well as
ourselves, to care for their good as well as their own
Respecting persons by being fair and just with them,
respecting their rights, keeping promises, avoiding
unnecessary offense and pain to them, avoiding
cheating and dishonesty

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 VARIETY OF MORAL ISSUES
 Two Approaches to engineering
ethics:
 Typical, everyday problems that
can take on significant proportions
in and engineer’s life
 Societal Problems that are often
shunted aside and are not
addressed until they unexpectedly
resurface
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HOW DO MORAL PROBLEMS ARISE
IN ENGINEERING
• Examples
– Faculty construction equipment

– Applying for a permit to operate a nuclear

power plant
– Chemical plant dumping wastes in a landfill

– Advertisements from an electronic company

for a product which is not ready for sale
• Engineer might be faced with contrary opinions
– Within the firm

– From the client

– From other firms within the industry

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CHALLENGES ON HANDLING
MORAL ISSUES
 To what extent can a supervisor be an
authoritative guide to engineer’s conduct ?
 What does one do when there are differences
of judgement ?
 Should one always follow the law to the
letter?
 Is an engineer to do no more than what the
specifications say, even if there are problems
more serious than those initially anticipated?
 How far does an engineer’s responsibility
extend into the realm of influencing the social
impact of the projects he or she participates
in?

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TYPES OF INQUIRIES

 The three types of inquiries,

in solving ethical problems
are:
 Normative inquiry
 Conceptual inquiry
 Factual or descriptive inquiry

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NORMATIVE INQUIRY
 It seeks to identify and
justify the morally-desirable
norms or standards that
should guide individuals and
groups.
 It also has the theoretical
goal of justifying particular
moral judgments.

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 NORMATIVE INQUIRY
Example:
How far does the obligation of engineers to protect
public safety extend in any given situation?
When, if ever, should engineers be expected to blow
whistle on dangerous practices of their employers?
Whose values ought to be primary in making judgment
about acceptable risks in design for a public transport
system or a nuclear plant? Is it of management, senior
engineers, government, voters or all of them?
When and why is the government justified in interfering
with the organizations?
What are the reasons on which the engineers show their
obligations to their employees or clients or the public?
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CONCEPTUAL INQUIRY
• It is directed to clarify the meaning of
concepts or ideas or principles that
are expressed by words or by
questions and statements.
• Examples:
– What is meant by safety?
– How is it related to risk?
– What is a bribe?
– What is a profession?
• When moral concepts are discussed,
normative and conceptual issues are
closely interconnected.

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 FACTUAL OR DESCRIPTIVE INQUIRY
• It is aimed to obtain facts needed for
understanding and resolving value issues.
• Researchers conduct factual inquiries
using mathematical or statistical
techniques.
• The inquiry provide important information
on business realities, engineering
practice, and the effectiveness of
professional societies in fostering moral
conduct, the procedures used in risk
assessment, and psychological profiles of
engineers.

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 Factual or Descriptive Inquiry
• The facts provide not only the reasons for
moral problems but also enable us to
develop alterative ways of resolving moral
problems.
• Example
1.How were the benefits assessed?
2.What are procedures followed in risk
assessment?
3.What are short-term and long-term
effects of drinking water being polluted?
Department of Information 17
4.Who conducted the tests on materials?
MORAL DILEMMA
• Dilemmas are situations in which
– Moral reasons come into conflict
– The application of moral values are
problems, and one is not clear of the
immediate choice or solution of the
problems.
– Moral reasons could be rights, duties,
goods or obligations.
– These situations do not mean that things
had gone wrong, but they only indicate
the presence of moral complexity. This
makes the decision making complex.

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SITUATIONS LEADING TO MORAL DILEMMA
The three complex situations
leading to moral dilemmas
are:
The problem of  vagueness
• One is unable to distinguish between
good and bad (right or wrong)
principle. Good means an action that
is obligatory. For example, code of
ethic specifies that one should obey
the laws and follow standards.
Refuse bribe or accept the gift, and
maintain confidentiality

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 Situations leading to Moral Dilemma
The problem of conflicting reasons
• One is unable to choose between two good moral
solutions. One has to fix priority, through knowledge
or value system.

The problem of disagreement 

• There may be two or more solutions and none of
them mandatory. These solutions may be better or
worse in some respects but not in all aspects. One
has to interpret, apply different morally reasons, and
analyze and rank the decisions. Select the best
suitable, under the existing and the most probable
conditions. 20
STEPS TO SOLVE DILEMMA
• Identification of the moral factors and
reasons.
• Collection of all information, data, and
facts
• Rank the moral options
• Generate alternate courses of action to
resolve the dilemma
• Discuss with colleagues and obtain their
perspectives, priorities, and suggestions
on various alternatives
• Decide upon a final course of action,
based on priority fixed or assumed

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MORAL AUTONOMY
• Moral autonomy is defined as, decisions and
actions exercised on the basis of moral
concern for other people and recognition of
good moral reasons.
• Alternatively, moral autonomy means ‘self
determinant or independent’.
• The autonomous people hold moral beliefs
and attitudes based on their critical reflection
rather than on passive adoption of the
conventions of the society or profession.
• Moral autonomy may also be defined as a skill
and habit of thinking rationally about the
ethical issues, on the basis of moral concern.

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MORAL AUTONOMY

 If management views profitability

is more important than consistent
quality and retention of the
customers that discourage the
moral autonomy, engineers are
compelled to seek the support from
their professional societies and
outside organizations for moral
support.
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KOHLBERG THEORY
 Kohlberg suggested there are
three levels of moral development,
based on the type of reasoning and
motivation of the individuals in
response to moral questions
 Pre-conventional
 Conventional
 Post-conventional

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Pre-Conventional
– Right conduct for an individual is
regarded as whatever directly benefits
oneself.
– At this level, individuals are motivated
by obedience or the desire to avoid
punishment or to satisfy their own
needs
– All young children exhibit this tendency .
Conventional
– People respect the law and authority
Post Conventional
– People begin to account for the
differing values, opinions and beliefs of
other people.

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KOHLBERG THEORY
• The following is one example of the dilemmas
Kohlberg presented.

"Heinz Steals the Drug”

In Europe, a woman was near death
from a special kind of cancer. There
was one drug that the doctors thought
might save her. It was a form of
radium that a druggist in the same
town had recently discovered. The
drug was expensive to make, but the
druggist was charging ten times what
the drug cost him to make. He paid
$200 for the radium and charged
$2,000 for a small dose of the drug.

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 Kohlberg Theory
The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to
everyone he knew to borrow the money, but he
could only get together about $ 1,000 which is
half of what it cost. He told the druggist that
his wife was dying and asked him to sell it
cheaper or let him pay later. But the druggist
said: "No, I discovered the drug and I'm going
to make money from it." So Heinz got
desperate and broke into the man's store to
steal the drug-for his wife. Should the husband
have done that?

• Kohlberg was not interested so much in the answer to the

question of whether Heinz was wrong or right, but in the
reasoning for each participant's decision. The responses were
then classified into various stages of reasoning in his theory of
moral development.
 KOHLBERG THEORY
• Level 1. Preconventional Morality

Stage 1 - Obedience and Punishment

The earliest stage of moral development is
especially common in young children, but adults
are also capable of expressing this type of
reasoning. At this stage, children see rules as
fixed and absolute. Obeying the rules is
important because it is a means to avoid
punishment.

Stage 2 - Individualism and Exchange

At this stage of moral development, children
account for individual points of view and judge
actions based on how they serve individual
needs. In the Heinz dilemma, children argued
that the best course of action was the choice
that best-served Heinz’s needs. Reciprocity is
possible, but only if it serves one's own
interests.
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 Kohlberg Theory
• Level 2. Conventional Morality

Stage 3 - Interpersonal Relationships

often referred to as the "good boy-good girl"
orientation, this stage of moral development is focused
on living up to social expectations and roles. There is an
emphasis on conformity, being "nice," and
consideration of how choices influence relationships.
Stage 4 - Maintaining Social Order
At this stage of moral development, people begin to
consider society as a whole when making judgments.
The focus is on maintaining law and order by following
the rules, doing one’s duty and respecting authority.
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• Level 3. Post conventional Morality
Stage 5 - Social Contract and Individual
Rights
At this stage, people begin to account for the
differing values, opinions and beliefs of other
people. Rules of law are important for
maintaining a society, but members of the
society should agree upon these standards.

Stage 6 - Universal Principles

Kolhberg’s final level of moral reasoning is
based upon universal ethical principles and
abstract reasoning. At this stage, people
follow these internalized principles of
justice, even if they conflict with laws and
rules.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bounwX
Lkme4
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 HEINZ DILEMMA

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c
zp9S4u26M
• Gilligan observes that Kohlberg's stages
were derived exclusively from interviews
with males, and she charges that the stages
reflect a decidedly male orientation.
• For males, advanced moral thought revolves
around rules, rights, and abstract principles.
The ideal is formal justice, in which all
parties evaluate one another's claims in an
impartial manner. This conception of
morality, Gilligan argues, fails to capture the
distinctly female voice on moral matters.

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 GILLIGAN’S THEORY
 Gilligan says
 morality centers not on rights and rules
but on interpersonal relationships and
the ethics of compassion and care.
 The ideal is not impersonal justice but
more affiliative ways of living.
 Women's morality, in addition, is more
contextualized; it is tied to real, ongoing
relationships rather than abstract
solutions to hypothetical dilemmas.

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CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY

 Consensus means agreement.

 Controversy means
Disagreement.
 The ethics make the engineers
realize the importance of
tolerance among them in case of
disagreement while applying
moral autonomy.
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MEMBERSHIP CRITERIA
 Earning bachelor’s degree in
engineering at a school approved by
the ABET.
 Performing commonly recognized as
what engineers do.
 Being officially registered and
licenses as a Professional
Engineer(PE).
 Acting in morally responsible ways
while practicing engineering.
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MODELS OF PROFESSIONAL ROLES
• Savior: The representative engineer is
a savior who will redeem society from
poverty, inefficiency, waste and
drudgery of manual labor.
• Guardian: The representative
engineer knows the directions in
which and pace at which, technology
should develop. Accordingly they
should be given positions of high
authority based on their expertise in
determining what is in the best
interest of the society.

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 Models of Professional Roles
• Bureaucratic servant: The role of engineer is to be a
servant who receives and translates the directives of
the management into concrete achievements.
• Social servant: The role of engineers’ lies in obedient
service to others but their true master is society.
• Social enabler or catalyst: Ultimate power lies with the
management. Nevertheless, the engineer plays a vital
role beyond mere compliance with orders.
• Game Player: Engineers are neither servants nor
masters. They play by the economic game rules that
happen that happen to be in effect at a given time.

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SENSES OF RESPONSIBILITY
 Characteristic quality
Primarily responsibility implies duty with care and efforts
 Obligations
These are one’s moral responsibility i.e., duty to act right and in moral
ways.
 General moral capacity
One has the general capacity for moral agency, including the
understanding and action on moral reasons.
 Liability and accountability
It means that one is liable (with a legal sense) to meet the obligations
in better ways. The person is likely to respond legally, if necessary.
Accountable means that one is willing to justify or defend the decisions,
actions or means and outcomes. It could include offering a reasonable
excuse or accepting the shame for not having met the end results or
accepting the guilt for harming others.

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 Praiseworthiness/Blameworthiness
When accountability for wrong actions or results is
at issue, responsibility means blameworthy. When
the right conduct or successful result is at issue,
responsible is synonymous with praiseworthy.
TYPES OF RESPONSIBILITY
 Moral responsibility
 Obligations
 Accountability
 Praiseworthy/Blameworthy
 Casual responsibility
 Job responsibility
 Legal responsibility

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 PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
 is being morally responsible as a professional.
 is an umbrella virtue that encompasses a wide
variety of more specific virtues that acquire
importance in particular situations
 Many of the virtues can be grouped into five
categories
 Self-direction virtues

 Public-spirited virtues

 Team-work virtues

 Proficiency virtues

 Cardinal virtues

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 Self direction virtues
Self-direction (Self-governance) virtues are
fundamental and necessary in exercising
moral responsibility. On the basis of
‘understanding and cognition’, it includes
self-understanding, humility (proper
assessment of one’s character), and good
moral judgment (termed as ‘practical
wisdom’ by Aristotle).
 Public-spirited virtues
focus on the good of the clients and the public. It
includes the respect for rights (to make decisions and
face the risk), non-malfeasance (not harming others
intentionally). Engineering codes go a step further and
prescribe beneficence that includes preventing or
removing harm to others and also promoting the public
safety, health, and welfare, generosity (helping the
community by voluntarily giving their time, talent, and
money-voluntary service to the professional society
and community), and justice (unbiased) in all decisions
and actions.
Team-work virtues
enable the professionals to work
successfully with others. They include
collegiality, cooperativeness,
communicative ability, and respect for
legitimate authority
 Proficiency virtues,
which mean the mastery of technical skills (called as
Intellectual Virtue by Aristotle). It includes
-competence (having qualified, licensed, and prepared
to execute the job that is undertaken),
-diligence (alert to dangers, careful attention, and
avoidance of laziness or workaholic nature),
-creativity (learning to respond to the changing
technological society),
-excellence (perform at the highest level), and
-self-renewal through continuing education
 Cardinal (chief) virtues:
1. Wisdom (prudence),

2. courage (fortitude),

3. temperance and

4. justice.
 Social Responsibility
Corporate organizations have social responsibility to all of their
‘stakeholders’
(a) how the product/project is marketed, used or misused, how it fails,
and how it is disposed or discarded. The ways in which the used
battery cells and computers are discarded have been debated in the
engineers’ forums.
(b) protecting the work environment during manufacture as well as the
external environment during transport or use
(c) training the disadvantaged or physically-challenged workers

(d) subcontracting and hiring practices, and

(e) contribution to local communities to enrich their cultural, social, and

civic life. It may be even compensatory against the harm to
environment (e.g., planting trees).
 Various types of responsibilities such as causal,
moral, and legal are distinguished through
appropriate examples, as shown below:
1. A stray cattle on the rail track caused the derailment of goods
train ?
2. A child playing with (safety?) matches causes fire ?
3. (a) Seth was driving a car. He failed to stop at the red signal,
which caused an accident (b) Suppose he applied brakes, but
they failed?
4. There was a forest fire. It was traced to camp fire at specific
site and Raj was the last to use the campsite.
5. The products sold have caused harm while being used
6. A fitter lost one his eyes while inserting a chip by using a
hammer
7. In a contract, it is not implied that the engineer to be held for
not observing the possibility of danger. But an accident occurs
8. A pandal erected by the contractor, in a marriage hall catches
fire, due to a leakage of electric current
9. Question papers were leaked out by some persons, during
transport
 Accountability means:
1. The capacity to understand and act on moral reasons
2. Willingness to submit one’s actions to moral scrutiny and be
responsive to the assessment of others. It includes being answerable
for meeting specific obligations, i.e., liable to justify (or give
reasonable excuses) the decisions, actions or means, and outcomes
(sometimes unexpected), when required by the stakeholders or by
law.
3. Conscientiousness: It means: (a) Being sensitive to full range of moral
values and responsibilities and (b) The willingness to upgrade their
skills, put efforts, and reach the best balance possible among those
considerations, and
4. Blameworthy/Praiseworthy: Own the responsibility for the good or
wrong outcomes. Courage to accept the mistakes will ensure success
in the efforts in future
 Obligation
The safety and other obligations of professional engineers are
justifiable based on the following aspects.
1. Moral obligations through laws and enforced codes of conduct

2. Through membership of professional society

3. Contractual agreement with the employers

4. By entry into career as engineer upon graduation from

Engineering institutions and
5. By special employment agreements or agreement with
professional societies. The paramount obligation means, giving
importance to the safety, health, and welfare of the public in
performing the professional duties.
THEORIES ABOUT RIGHT ACTION

 Utilitarianism
 Duty Ethics
 Rights Ethics
 Virtue Ethics

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UTILITARIANISM JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873)
 Considers a balance of good & bad
consequences for everyone
affected (society)
 Actions are good that serve to
promote human well-being
 Cost-Benefit analysis is an
application
 Consideration of most benefit to
the most people outweighs needs
of a few individuals

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DUTY ETHICS IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804)
 There are duties that should be
performed (e.g.. Duty to treat
others fairly or not to injure
others) regardless of whether
these acts do the most good or
not.

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RIGHTS ETHICS JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)

 People have fundamental

rights (like life, liberty, &
property) that others
have a duty to respect.

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TESTING ETHICAL THEORIES
 Five widely used tests for evaluating
ethical theories:
 The theory must be clear
 It must be consistent
 Neither the theory nor its defense can rely
upon false information
 It must be sufficiently comprehensive to
provide guidance in specific situations of
interest to us.
 It must be compatible with our most
carefully considered moral convictions about
concrete situations.
situations

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 CUSTOMS AND ETHICAL RELATIVISM
 Various culture in our pluralistic society lead to
tolerance for various customs, beliefs and outlooks.
 Ethical pluralism is the view that there may be
alternative perspectives that are reasonable, but no
one of which must be accepted completely by all
rational and morally concerned persons.
 Ethical relativism says that actions are morally
right when they are approved by law or custom;
they are wrong when they violate laws or customs.
 Moral rationalism is the view that moral judgments
should be made in relation to factors that may vary
from case to case.

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 RELIGION
 Religions have played major roles in shaping
moral views and moral values.
 Each religion lays stress on certain high moral
standards.
 Hinduism holds polytheistic view and virtues of
devotion and surrender to high order.
 Christianity believes in one deity and emphasizes on
virtues of love, faith and hope.
 Islam on one deity and adherence to ishan and
prayer.
 But many religious sects have adopted poor
moral standards.
 People are killed in the name of religion.

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DIVINE COMMAND ETHICS
 As per this principle, the right
action is defined by the
commands by God.
 It implies that to be moral, a
person should believe in god
and an action is right only if it
is commanded by God.

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USES OF ETHICAL THEORIES

 Ethical theories are useful :

 for justifying moral
obligations.
 for resolving moral dilemmas.
 in relating professional and
ordinary morality.

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 Text Book
 Mike Martin and Roland Schinzinger,
Ethics in Engineering, Mcgraw Hill, New
York, 1996.
 Reference Books
 M.Govindarajan, S.Natarajan, V.S.SenthilKumar,
Engineering Ethics, PHI, 2004.
 Charles D.Fleddermann, Engineering Ethics,
Prentice Hall, New Mexico, 1999.
 R.S.Naagarazan, Professional Ethics and
Human Values, New Age International
Publishers, 2006.

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 REVIEW QUESTIONS
 What is engineering ethics?
 What are the situations when moral
dilemmas arise?
 What are the steps needed to
confront moral dilemmas?
 What are the types of inquiry?
 What are the two aspects of
honesty?
 List the criteria to achieve
professionalism.
 List the models of professional roles.
 What are the virtues fulfilled under
professional responsibility?

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