Chapter 1

Professional Ethics

Why Professional Ethics?

To understand the importance of professional ethics

might begin with the concept of roles.
A single individual normally plays
a variety of
different roles, all at the same time. Example: you may
be a student, but you also may be a friend, a brother
or sister, a son or daughter, a roommate, a member of
a club, a citizen of a nation or any number of things.
With each role come certain ethical obligations. As a
student, you have an obligation not to cheat and as a
friend, you have an obligation to help your friend in his
or her time of need. If you are a roommate, you might
owe your roommate the courtesy of keeping the
common areas clean. As a citizen of a nation, you are
obligated to follow the laws issued by the government.

Why Professional Ethics?

The idea is that whenever there is talk about ethics

and your ethical obligations, there is a connection that
is being suggested between those obligations and the
roles from which they stem.
The topic of professional ethics concerns the
obligations held by individuals in their particular roles
as professionals.
Indeed, professions already have certain formal rules
in place that must be followed:
First: Professional are obligated to obey laws that govern their
societies. Exp: In USA Sherman Anti-Trust Act, prohibits
businesses from getting together and fixing prices.

Why Professional Ethics?

Second: Specific professions and industries often specify their
own rules, beyond the general requirements of the law and
direct the individuals in those professions and industries to act
accordingly. Example, code of ethics for engineers/technologist
specifies obligations to avoid deceptive conduct and to serve the
public interest at all time.
Third: Individual organizations have their own policies and even
codes of ethics designed to be even more attentive to the
particular sorts of issues encountered those organizations. The
aim is to focus on rules that are more directly relevant for the
specific organization.

Professional Ethics?

Professional ethics is a field of applied ethics whose

purpose is to define, clarify and criticize professional
work and its typical values.
Professions are characterized sociologically by means
of their members scientifically grounded expertise
and their service ideal. Such a definition applies to
what can be called classical professions.
Service ideal can be understood in reference to values
that define the goals of their work; for examples, a
physicians primary goal is to promote health.
Every classical profession has its own service ideal
associated with the typical vale of its members work.

Professional Ethics?

From the point of view of philosophical ethics,

professional work can be said to embody rights and
obligations that are peculiar to each profession.
Professional work entails also the virtuous character
of the professional.
Engineering/ engineering technology can be studied in
reference to the technological system that is
characterized by its autonomy of values, technological
imperative and technological determinism.
The standard view is that the values of
engineering/engineering technology are the safety,
health and welfare of the public.

Professional Ethics?

Technological imperative: The concept that new

technologies are inevitable and essential and that they
must be developed and accepted for the good of
society.
Technological determinism: A societys technology
drives the development of its social structure and
cultural values.

Types of Professional
Ethics

Professional ethics is a term that can be understood

in three different ways.

First: Professional ethics is a code of values and norms

that actually guide practical decisions when they are
made by professionals. As such, professional ethics
may be a more or less explicit and conscious
determinant of action.

Types of Professional
Ethics

Second: Professional ethics is a fully idealized set of

values whose purpose is to explicate the best possible
world in which the given profession could be working.
All professions have nowadays formulated their own
codes of conduct that explicate their own best values,
conduct and consequences. Such professional ethics
can be characterized as expressive and demonstrative
and it can be therefore be studied best by the methods
of the discipline called rhetoric.

Types of Professional
Ethics

Third : Professional ethics may be a critical

philosophical discipline, and as such a part of the
wider field of applied ethics. In this case, normal
methods of philosophical ethics are applied to
professional decisions, planning and action in order to
evaluate, criticize and develop them.

Issues in Professional
Ethics

Example: Ethical issues in genetic engineering

Issues in Professional
Ethics

Ethical issues in Mechanical Engineering Technology?

Project:
Develop a video clip that discusses about ethical
issues in Mechanical Engineering Technology. Details
of the project as follow:
- A group project, max 5 people
- Duration of the video clip: 10 minutes
- Video clip such as a short movie, documentary,
musical
- Submit material: Video clip, report
- Dateline: Week 12

Issues in Professional
Ethics
Project:
Report:
1.
Group introduction
2.
Task of each member
3.
Synopsis of the video
4.
Timetable Schedule
5.
Minutes of meeting
6.
Attendance