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(1 - 10 of 10)
- 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
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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
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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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- 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
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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
- A Case of "Gray Plagiarism" from the History of the History of Computing
- Creator
- Davis, Michael
- Date
- 2006, 2006
- Publisher
- Plagiary : Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsfication
- Description
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Claiming as one's own what one knows to be the discovery of another is certainly plagiarism. But what about merely failing to acknowledge the...
Show moreClaiming as one's own what one knows to be the discovery of another is certainly plagiarism. But what about merely failing to acknowledge the work of another where one does not give the impression that the discovery is one's own? Does it matter how easy it was to make the discovery? This paper analyzes a case in this gray area in academic ethics. The focus is not on the failure to attribute itself but on the attempt of an independent scholar who, believing himself to be the victim of "gray plagiarism”, sought a forum in which to make his complaint. The story could be told from several perspectives. I shall tell it primarily from the perspective of the complainant, an outsider, because I believe that way of telling it best reveals the need to think more deeply about how we (acting for the universities to which we belong) assign credit, especially to scholars outside, and about how we respond when someone complains of a failure to assign credit. My purpose is not to indict individuals but to change a system. This paper updates a case I first described in 1993.
Davis, M. (2006). “Gray Plagiarism”: A Case from the History of the History of Computing. Plagiary: Cross‐Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 1 (7): 1‐18.
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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
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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
- Professionalism Means Putting Your Profession First
- Creator
- Davis, Michael
- Date
- 2007, 1988
- Publisher
- Georgetown School of Law
- Description
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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
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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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