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Title: Reflections on the History of Engineering in the United States : A Preface to Engineering Ethics
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2005, 1992-11-19
Publisher: Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, IIT
Description: This paper traces the history of the profession of engineering in the United States as a way to gain a better understanding of the field of...
Show moreThis paper traces the history of the profession of engineering in the United States as a way to gain a better understanding of the field of engineering and of engineering ethics.
Lecture at the Center for Academic Ethics and College of Engineering, Wayne State University. Detroit, Michigan. 19 November 1992
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Title: Davis Discussant Remarks - APPE 2010
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2010-05, 2010-03
Publisher: National Academy of Engineering
Description: Remarks by Dr. Michael Davis as part of the panel "Engineering and Social Justice: What are the Difficulties, What are the Possibilities? as...
Show moreRemarks by Dr. Michael Davis as part of the panel "Engineering and Social Justice: What are the Difficulties, What are the Possibilities? as part of a mini conference at the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Annual Meeting entitled, "Engineering Towards a More Just and Sustainable World
Sponsorship: Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, National Academy of Engineering, Center for Engineering, Ethics and Society
Results from APPE Mini-Conference: Engineering towards a More Just and Sustainable World Cincinnati, Ohio March 6 – 7, 2010
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Title: Getting an Ethics Charge Out of Current Events : Some Doubts About Katrina
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2006, 2006
Publisher: Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, IIT
Description: The author discusses why he believes that Hurricane Katrina, which is certainly the biggest engineering disaster in the history of the United...
Show moreThe author discusses why he believes that Hurricane Katrina, which is certainly the biggest engineering disaster in the history of the United States, is not a good case for teaching engineering ethics. This is for three major reasons. First, there is the question of what happened. Second, there is the question of what part engineers had in what happened, which decisions were theirs and which belonged to elected or appointed officials who were not engineers. Third, there is the question of what part engineering ethics had, or should have had, in the decisions engineered did make. We lack any dramatic moment such as the Challenger Disaster provided, a moment when ethics mattered in a way that is both precise and interesting.
resentation at the American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference. Hyatt Regency, Chicago, IL. June 20, 2006.
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Title: What Engineering Societies Can Do About Ethics
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2006, 1988-09-27
Publisher: Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, IIT
Description: This talk looks at how engineering societies can promote ethical practice and discussion about ethics among their members. After some remarks...
Show moreThis talk looks at how engineering societies can promote ethical practice and discussion about ethics among their members. After some remarks about how engineers commonly handle ethical issues that come up within organizations, especially in instances when raising ethical issues with managers such as the Challenger Shuttle Explosion, the author goes on to discuss how engineering societies can promote continuing education in ethics, hold roundtable discussions between engineers and managers, and promote open communication in workplaces.
Address given at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Chicago Area Combined Section Meeting, 27 September 1988.
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Title: Technology, Values, and Ethics : A Framework
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2006, 1992-02-01
Publisher: Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, IIT
Description: Three words of my title--"technology", "values", and "ethics"--have this in common: they have all been used in enough different ways to be...
Show moreThree words of my title--"technology", "values", and "ethics"--have this in common: they have all been used in enough different ways to be dangerous. To provide the framework my title promises, I shall have to distinguish the most important of those uses, set them in context, and explain how they are (or are not) related. This conceptual housecleaning, rather boring in itself, will give me the opportunity to talk about engineering, both its history and practice. That will not be boring.
GTE Lecture University of Wisconsin Center/Fond du Lac October 13, 199
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Title: Moral Responsibility and Whistleblowing in the Nuclear Industry : Browns Ferry and Three Mile Island
Creator: Weil, Vivian
Date: 2005, 1983
Publisher: Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, IIT
Description: This paper analyzes the actions of a number of Nuclear Engineers at Browns Ferry and Three Mile Island who resigned from their positions in...
Show moreThis paper analyzes the actions of a number of Nuclear Engineers at Browns Ferry and Three Mile Island who resigned from their positions in order to highlight the safety concerns they saw in the U.S. nuclear power program and nuclear power plant safety. The paper includes a description and chronology of events, and an in-depth case study analysis of the moral responsibility of engineers and whistleblowing.
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Title: Professionalism Among Chinese Engineers: An Empirical Study
Creator: Wei, Lina, Davis, Michael
Date: 2019
Description: Spreadsheet of answers from a questionnaire sent out in 2018-2019 to Chinese engineering students looking at their perceptions of professional...
Show moreSpreadsheet of answers from a questionnaire sent out in 2018-2019 to Chinese engineering students looking at their perceptions of professional and engineering ethics.
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Collection: Center for the Study of Ethics in the Collection - "China's Unwritten Code of Ethics"

Title: Conflicts of Interest in Engineering
Creator: Davis, Michael, Wells, Paula, Jones, Hardy
Date: 2009, 1986
Publisher: Kendalll/Hunt Publishing Company
Description: This module begins by examining the Hydrolevel case, and uses this as a way to highlight relevant principles regarding conflict of interest in...
Show moreThis module begins by examining the Hydrolevel case, and uses this as a way to highlight relevant principles regarding conflict of interest in engineering, and to discuss the importance of these principles for engineers as professionals and moral agents. The module then considers four applications of these principles drawn from the “Opinions” of the Board of Ethical Review of the National Society of Professional Engineers. The module also includes ten short cases to be used in classroom discussion. It also includes professional codes from the National Society of Professional Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
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: Assessing Graduate Student Progress in Engineering Ethics
Creator: Davis, Michael, Feinerman, Alan
Date: 2010-11-10, 2011
Publisher: Springer
Description: Under a grant from the National Science Foundation, the authors (and others) undertook to integrate ethics into graduate engineering classes...
Show moreUnder a grant from the National Science Foundation, the authors (and others) undertook to integrate ethics into graduate engineering classes at three universities—and to assess success in a way allowing comparison across classes (and institutions). This paper describes the attempt to carry out that assessment. Standard methods of assessment turned out to demand too much class time. Under pressure from instructors, the authors developed an alternative method that is both specific in content to individual classes and allows comparison across classes. Results are statistically significant for ethical sensitivity and knowledge. They show measurable improvement in a single semester.
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Title: 'Ain't No One Here But Us Social Forces' : Constructing the Social Responsibility of Engineers.
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2011-04, 2011-06
Publisher: Springer
Description: There are many ways to avoid responsibility, for example, explaining what happens as the work of the gods, fate, society, or the system. For...
Show moreThere are many ways to avoid responsibility, for example, explaining what happens as the work of the gods, fate, society, or the system. For engineers, “technology” or “the organization” will serve this purpose quite well. We may distinguish at least nine (related) senses of “responsibility”, the most important of which are: (a) responsibility-as-causation (the storm is responsible for flooding), (b) responsibility-as-liability (he is the person responsible and will have to pay), (c) responsibility-as-competency (he’s a responsible person, that is, he’s rational), (d) responsibility-as-office (he’s the responsible person, that is, the person in charge), and (e) a responsibility-as-domain-of-tasks (these are her responsibilities, that is, the things she is supposed to do). For all but the causal sense of responsibility, responsibility may be taken (in a relatively straightforward sense)—and generally is. Why then would anyone want to claim that certain technologies make it impossible to attribute responsibility to engineers (or anyone else)? In this paper, I identify seven arguments for that claim and explain why each is fallacious. The most important are: (1) the argument from “many hands”, (2) the argument from individual ignorance, and (3) the argument from blind forces. Each of these arguments makes the same fundamental mistake, the assumption that a certain factual situation, being fixed, settles responsibility, that is, that individuals, either individually or by some group decision, cannot take responsibility. I conclude by pointing out the sort of decisions (and consequences) engineers have explicitly taken responsibility for and why taking responsibility for them is rational, all things considered. There is no technological bar to such responsibility.
Science and Engineering Ethics.
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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: 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: 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: 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: 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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