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Title: Do the Professional Ethics of Chemists and Engineers Differ ?
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2011, 2002
Publisher: HYLE - International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry
Description: This paper provides a sketch of my general way of understanding professions and then applies that sketch to a specific question, how to...
Show moreThis paper provides a sketch of my general way of understanding professions and then applies that sketch to a specific question, how to distinguish between two very similar professions, chemistry and engineering. I argue that the professional ethics of chemists do differ from the professional ethics of engineers and that the differences are important. The argument requires definition of both ‘ethics’ and ‘profession’ – as well delving into the details of chemistry and engineering.
HYLE – International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry Vol. 8, No . 1 (2002) http://www.hyle.org/journal/issues/8-1/davis.htm
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Title: Ethics in the Details : Communicating Engineering Ethics via Micro-Insertion
Creator: Davis, Michael, Riley, Kathryn, Cox, Apryl, Maciukenas, James
Date: 2009, 2009
Publisher: IEEE
Description: Work is described on a National Science Foundation grant that supports the development, assessment, and dissemination of “micro-insertion”...
Show moreWork is described on a National Science Foundation grant that supports the development, assessment, and dissemination of “micro-insertion” problems designed to integrate ethics into the graduate engineering curriculum. In contrast to traditional modular approaches to ethics pedagogy, micro-insertions introduce ethical issues by means of a “low-dose” approach. Following a description of the micro-insertion approach, we outline the workshop structure being used to teach engineering faculty and graduate students how to write micro-insertions for graduate engineering courses, with particular attention to how the grant develops engineering students’ (and faculty members’) ability to communicate across disciplinary boundaries. We also describe previous and planned methods for assessing the effectiveness of micro-insertions. Finally, we explain the role that technical communication faculty and graduate students are playing as part of the grant team, speciﬁcally in developing an Ethics In-Basket that will disseminate micro-insertions developed during the grant.
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communications Vol. 52, Issue 1, pp. 95-108.
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Title: IIT's Workshops for Integrating Ethics into Technical Courses : Some Lessons Learned
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2006, 2006
Publisher: Philosophy Documentation Center
Description: In 1990, IIT's Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions received a grant of more than $210,000 from the National Science Foundation...
Show moreIn 1990, IIT's Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions received a grant of more than $210,000 from the National Science Foundation to try a campus-wide approach to integrating professional ethics into its technical curriculum; in 1996, the Center received another $100,000 to continue the project, with the emphasis on passing along to other institutions what was learned at IIT; and, in 2000, the Center received a third grant for three years, with the same emphasis, for $244,000. Between 1990 and 2004, more than 160 faculty “graduated” from the workshop and another dozen or so attended as unofficial volunteers. I was the principal investigator under all three grants, but shared the work with three co-PIs, the “we” in what follows. Though I generally prefer to emphasize what we did right, emphasizing what I now think we should have done differently should be more helpful here. There are at least three reasons why that should be so. First, I have already made many presentations, including several in Japan, arguing the (very real) merits of what we did. While repetition can help to make a point, sooner or later, though usually sooner, the effect of repetition ceases to repay the effort. I fear I may have reached that point. Second, I have nowhere before said much about what now seem mistakes —or, at least, lost opportunities. Discussing them here should add to what is known about ethics workshops. Adding to that knowledge seems worthy in itself. Third, you are already committed to ethics across the curriculum. The question before you now is how to carry out that commitment. I believe there is much to learn from our mistakes. We certainly learned much from the mistakes of those whose workshops we studied before undertaking our own. Running that workshop included the following activities: recruiting, scheduling, content, and research. For each activity, I will first briefly explain what we did and then what I now think we should have done.
Teaching Ethics, Vol. 7, Issue 2, 1-14
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Title: The Moral Status of Loyality
Creator: Baron, Marcia
Date: 2009, 1984
Publisher: Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, IIT
Description: This module looks at the moral issue of putting one’s loyalty to his or her company before other moral demands, such as one’s professional...
Show moreThis module looks at the moral issue of putting one’s loyalty to his or her company before other moral demands, such as one’s professional judgment and questions of public welfare. Focusing on the issues specific to engineers, the module analyzes the concept and nature of loyalty, isolates its positive and negative features, and determines, within broad parameters, when it is right to act loyally and when other moral considerations take precedence. Includes a bibliography of related materials.
Sponsorship: Exxon Education Foundation
The Module Series in Applied Ethics was produced by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions in under a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation. This series is intended for use in a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs in such areas as science and/or technology public policy, and professional ethics courses in engineering, business, and computer science.
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Title: Replacement as a Problem for Justification of Preventative Detention
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2011, 2011-04
Publisher: John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New Yor
Description: What makes Don E. Scheid’s article on indefinite detention interesting is that he thinks through many of the moral issues inherent in...
Show moreWhat makes Don E. Scheid’s article on indefinite detention interesting is that he thinks through many of the moral issues inherent in attempting to prevent (or, rather, keep to a minimum) certain kinds of violent crime, an attempt we have come to call (however unwisely) ‘‘the war on terror.’’ Scheid takes ‘‘war’’ as literally as possible, while making the reasonable assumption that this war, unlike wars generally, is not a temporary expedient responding to a moral emergency but an institution that must operate at full power for a long time, decades at least. Scheid’s argument yields a long list of preconditions for justified indefinite preventive detention: a high standard of dangerousness (‘‘mega-terrorism’’), a reasonable standard of proof of dangerousness, as good an investigation as conditions will allow, adequate resources for the defense, a hearing before a fair and independent tribunal, detention under the most comfortable conditions practical, and periodic review of the detainee’s supposed dangerousness. To these preconditions one more should be added: that detaining the persons in question will reduce the danger posed. I take this additional precondition to follow from Scheid’s own defense of indefinite detention, not from an independent argument. Scheid limits his argument to megaterrorists because the scale of destruction they have already achieved (for example, destruction of the World Trade Center) shows them to be dangerous on a scale ordinary crime is not and so to invite measures of prevention beyond what seems necessary (or proper) for ordinary criminals. Scheid explicitly declines to consider the non-consequentialist argument that preventive detention is what a mega-terrorist deserves for his character or for what he has already done. Scheid’s argument for preventive detention is consequentialist throughout: we may, and should, detain to prevent (or at least substantially reduce the probability of) the large-scale destruction of life that mega-terrorists aim at. We may justifiably deny a few, including some innocent persons, their freedom because, and only because, it makes the rest of us, the great majority, considerably safer. My additional precondition can be defended in the same way: where there is no danger posed, any detention is (all else equal) a net loss in happiness, well being, or whatever reasonable measure of consequences we adopt. A precondition of preventative detention must be a net reduction in danger posed. Where what is proposed is an institution of preventative detention, the institution must have that effect overall. What I shall argue here is that preventive detention generally fails to satisfy this condition and Scheid’s indefinite preventive detention of mega-terrorists always does. An institution to prevent terrorism by detaining terrorists cannot, in practice, significantly reduce the danger terrorism poses.
Criminal Justice Ethics. Vol. 30, No. 1, April 2011, 90-97.
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Title: University Research and the Wages of Commerce.
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2006, 1991
Publisher: Notre Dame Law School
Description: This is a response to a talk given by Ralph Nader on "The Relationship Between the University and Business and Industry." The author...
Show moreThis is a response to a talk given by Ralph Nader on "The Relationship Between the University and Business and Industry." The author acknowledges that a problems do come up when universities have close ties with industry. However, the author explores the reality of these partnerships through some examples of his own experience at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Journal of College and University Law, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1991. pp. 29-38.
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Title: The Usefulness of Moral Theory in Practical Ethics: A Question of Comparative Cost (A Response to Harris)
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2009, 2009
Publisher: Philosophy Documentation Center
Description: I find myself agreeing with almost everything in Harris’s defense of moral theory except the end: moral theories can often be useful in...
Show moreI find myself agreeing with almost everything in Harris’s defense of moral theory except the end: moral theories can often be useful in resolving moral dilemmas. Both students and practitioners of practical ethics should be constantly reminded of this, because in practical ethics we need all of the help we can get. If (as it seems) these two sentences state the conclusion, Harris has committed a non sequitur. While making a good argument for the general usefulness of moral theory in practical ethics, he has not made any argument for its usefulness to students or practitioners as such. He has simply assumed that what is true of some who engage in practical ethics is true of students and practitioners in particular. In theory, of course, moral theory should be useful even to students and practitioners, helping them to identify issues they might have overlooked, to seek information they might otherwise not have thought relevant, and to formulate courses of action that might not otherwise have occurred to them. In practice, however, moral theory will seldom, if ever, be useful (or, at least, useful enough). We do not (as Harris claims) need all the help we can get in practical ethics. What we need is all the help we can get at reasonable cost. We should only invest the time and effort needed to learn and use moral theory when the investment is no greater than for an otherwise equally useful alternative. Since there is at least one equally useful alternative requiring much less investment, the time and effort students and practitioners would have to invest in moral theory will (in general) be much greater than necessary for their purposes. So, neither students nor practitioners need moral theory.
Teaching Ethics Vol. 10, Issue 1, pp. 69-78
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Title: Doing the Minimum as an Alternative to Exercising Reasonable Care in a Professional Role
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2008, 2000
Description: In the second edition of ENGINEERING ETHICS:CASES AND CONCEPTS (Wadsworth, 2000), Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins distinguish three conceptions...
Show moreIn the second edition of ENGINEERING ETHICS:CASES AND CONCEPTS (Wadsworth, 2000), Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins distinguish three conceptions of professional responsibility: the "minimalist," the "reasonable care" and the "good works". Of the minimalist conception, they say (among other things) that it "holds that engineers have a duty to conform to the standard operating procedures of their profession and to fulfill the basic duties of their job defied by the terms of their employment." (p.101). In contrast, the reasonable care conception "moves beyond the minimalist view's concern to 'stay out of trouble'. (p.103) I will argue that this distinction is incoherent, that the "minimalist conception" (so defined) necessarily includes not only reasonable care but at least some of what Harris, Pritchard, and Rabins classify as "good works". I conclude with a suggestion for what they might say instead about a certain "minimalist attitude" one finds in business (though it truth, it should be called "sub-minimalist".
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Professional and Practical Ethics (A.P.P.E.), Washington, DC, February 26, 2000.
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Title: Professional Responsibility for Harmful Actions
Creator: Curd, Martin, May, Larry
Date: 2009, 1984
Publisher: Kendalll/Hunt Publishing Company
Description: This module discusses the professional responsibility for harmful action, and the legal and moral duty of due care to avoid harming others or...
Show moreThis module discusses the professional responsibility for harmful action, and the legal and moral duty of due care to avoid harming others or risking their harm. The module discusses the relations and differences between legal and moral duty to avoid causing harm, and the differences between intentional and unintentional harm. The author uses examples and cases to illustrate different types of negligence that can occur in the engineering profession, and includes commentary and discussion questions. Includes a bibliography of related materials and legal cases.
Sponsorship: Exxon Education Foundation
The Module Series in Applied Ethics was produced by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions in under a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation. This series is intended for use in a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs in such areas as science and/or technology public policy, and professional ethics courses in engineering, business, and computer science.
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Title: Professionalism Means Putting Your Profession First
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2007, 1988
Publisher: Georgetown School of Law
Description: Ask a lawyer what "professionalism" means and you are likely to hear that professionalism means putting your client first or acting as an...
Show moreAsk a lawyer what "professionalism" means and you are likely to hear that professionalism means putting your client first or acting as an officer of the court. Only rarely will a lawyer say that professionalism means putting justice first. Never, I think, will a lawyer even suggest that professionalism means putting your profession first. Yet this is the thesis of this paper. The paper has three parts. Section I makes certain distinctions necessary to prevent misunderstanding my thesis. Section II and III develop the thesis into a conception of professionalism. Sections IV and V use that conception to help with the most difficult of undertakings, justifying professional discipline to someone convicted of professional misconduct which harmed neither her client nor an identifiable third party.
Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics. Vol. 2, Issue 1. Summer 1988. pp.341-357.
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Title: Risk-Benefit Analysis Concerning Public Safety and Health
Creator: Sagoff, Mark
Date: 2009, 1985
Publisher: Kendalll/Hunt Publishing Company
Description: This module looks at the use of risk-benefit analysis to answer questions engineers often face when making decisions about public safety and...
Show moreThis module looks at the use of risk-benefit analysis to answer questions engineers often face when making decisions about public safety and health. It explains how risk-benefit analysis can be used in answering questions such as “how safe is safe enough?” and then defends the thesis that this form of analysis cannot provide answers to questions about public safety and health. While risk-benefit analysis offers guidance for policy decisions, it does not provide an adequate basis for reaching or for justifying these decisions. The module looks at the ethical basis and free market justification of this form analysis, and then looks at the practical methods that risk-benefit analysis employs and the difficulties faced in using these methods, such as the predictability of harmful events occurring, and the human factor. Includes bibliography of related materials.
Sponsorship: Exxon Education Foundation
The Module Series in Applied Ethics was produced by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions in under a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation. This series is intended for use in a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs in such areas as science and/or technology public policy, and professional ethics courses in engineering, business, and computer science.
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Title: Some Paradoxes of Whistleblowing
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2006, 1996
Publisher: Philosophy Documentation Center
Description: By "paradox" I mean an apparent- and in this case, real-inconsistency between theory (our systematic understanding of whistleblowing) and the...
Show moreBy "paradox" I mean an apparent- and in this case, real-inconsistency between theory (our systematic understanding of whistleblowing) and the facts (what we actually know, or think we know, about whistleblowing). What concerns me is not a few anomalies, the exceptions that test a rule, but a flood of exceptions that seem to swamp the rule. This paper has four parts. The first states the standard theory of whistleblowing. The second argues that the standard theory is paradoxical, that it is inconsistent with what we know about whistleblowers. The third part sketches what seems to me a less paradoxical theory of whistleblowing. The fourth tests this new theory against one classic case of whistleblowing, Roger Boisjoly's testimony before the presidential commission investigating the Challenger disaster (the "Rogers Commission"). I use that case because the chief facts are both uncontroversial enough and well-known enough to make detailed exposition unnecessary. For the same reasons, I also use that case to illustrate various claims about whistleblowing throughout the paper.
Business and Professional Ethics Journal, Vo. 15, No.1. pp.3-19.
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Title: Technology Assessment : A Historical Approach
Creator: Cameron, Rondo, Millard, A.j.
Date: 2009, 1985
Publisher: Kendalll/Hunt Publishing Company
Description: This module discusses the unique role engineers play in technology assessment; or the “process of discovering the potential benefits and risks...
Show moreThis module discusses the unique role engineers play in technology assessment; or the “process of discovering the potential benefits and risks of new technologies, weighing the social gains against the social costs, and then taking steps to influence the rate and direction of technological change.” This module deals with the ethical decisions of James Watt and his assessment of the steam engine, and Thomas Edison and his assessment of electricity. The module then looks at the more modern example of nuclear power, and shows the problems that arise when engineers fail to properly access the moral and ethical issues raised by the technologies they develop. Includes discussion questions and an annotated bibliography of related materials.
Sponsorship: Exxon Education Foundation
The Module Series in Applied Ethics was produced by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions in under a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation. This series is intended for use in a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs in such areas as science and/or technology public policy, and professional ethics courses in engineering, business, and computer science.
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Title: Unscrambling Ethics for Managers
Creator: Weil, Vivian
Date: 2005, 1988-04-26
Description: Though people tend to wonder what there is to talk about when discussing business ethics, many conversations with business faculty at IIT have...
Show moreThough people tend to wonder what there is to talk about when discussing business ethics, many conversations with business faculty at IIT have lead the author to believe that ethics is large part of business practice. The author explores why business people can be timid when talking about ethics and discusses three major questions surrounding this topic. One, is it possible to teach ethics to people who are no longer children, two, how do you spot ethical problems, and 3, how can you approach ethical problems.
Talk delivered to Frontenac Company Seminar, Carefree Colorado, April 26, 1988.
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Title: Whistleblowing : Ethical and Legal Issues in Expressing Dissent
Creator: Peterson, Farrell, Dan James C.
Date: 2009, 1986
Publisher: Kendalll/Hunt Publishing Company
Description: This module discusses the history of whistleblowing and some of the ethical ethical dilemmas faced by whistleblowers, including the...
Show moreThis module discusses the history of whistleblowing and some of the ethical ethical dilemmas faced by whistleblowers, including the conflicting values of loyalty to one’s employer and protecting the public good, clashes between professional judgment and organizational authority, and the legal aspects of whistleblowing. It also includes a summary of the Browns Ferry Case (Weil, 1977) and discussion questions. Includes annotated bibliography of related materials.
Sponsorship: Exxon Education Foundation
The Module Series in Applied Ethics was produced by the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions in under a grant from the Exxon Education Foundation. This series is intended for use in a wide range of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education programs in such areas as science and/or technology public policy, and professional ethics courses in engineering, business, and computer science.
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Title: Mentions of Ethics Codes in Social Media: A Twitter Analysis
Creator: Laas, Kelly, Hildt, Elisabeth, Wu, Ying
Date: 2022, 2022-01-03
Publisher: Springer, Cham
Collection: Codes of Ethics and Ethical Guidelines: Emerging Technologies and Changing Fields

Title: An Introduction to the Societal Roles of Ethics Codes
Creator: Laas, Kelly, Davis, Michael, Hildt, Elisabeth
Date: 2022, 2022-01-03
Publisher: Springer, Cham
Description: In this collected volume, we are interested in the roles of ethics codes and ethical guidelines in professions in which research and...
Show moreIn this collected volume, we are interested in the roles of ethics codes and ethical guidelines in professions in which research and innovation play an important role and where emerging technologies bring about considerable, sometimes fast-paced change.
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Collection: Codes of Ethics and Ethical Guidelines: Emerging Technologies and Changing Fields

Title: Informed Consent in Digital Data Management
Creator: Hildt, Elisabeth, Laas, Kelly
Date: 2022, 2022-01-03
Publisher: Springer, Cham
Description: This article discusses the role of informed consent, a well-known concept and standard established in the field of medicine, in ethics codes...
Show moreThis article discusses the role of informed consent, a well-known concept and standard established in the field of medicine, in ethics codes relating to digital data management. It analyzes the significance allotted to informed consent and informed consent-related principles in ethics codes, policies, and guidelines by presenting the results of a study focused on 31 ethics codes, policies, and guidelines held as part of the Ethics Codes Collection. The analysis reveals that up to now, there is a limited number of codes of ethics, policies, and guidelines on digital data management. Informed consent often is a central component in these codes and guidelines. While there undoubtedly are significant similarities between informed consent in medicine and digital data management, in ethics codes and guidelines, informed consent-related standards in some fields such as marketing are weaker and less strict. The article concludes that informed consent is an essential standard in digital data management that can help effectively shape future practices in the field. However, a more detailed reflection on the specific content and role of informed consent and informed consent-related standards in the various areas of digital data management is needed to avoid the weakening and dilution of standards in contexts where there are no clear legal regulations.
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Collection: Codes of Ethics and Ethical Guidelines: Emerging Technologies and Changing Fields

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