Professional Ethics
Question 1
Engineering design refers to applying various techniques and scientific principles to define a service, a process, or a system in sufficient detail to permit its physical realization. In so doing, the result should meet the expectations of the end-user. The happiness of a client depends on how satisfactorily the service or product is. Consumers have a wide scope of defining happiness; the most common being does the product meet my needs?
Engineers, therefore, have a hard task in basing all their designs on values. Starting from the project’s blueprint, the designer makes decisions that utilize all aspects to raise maximum value for the user. Engineers need to consider which values are more important to the user because each value used is reflective of another overlooked. The forgone value cost need not be higher than the value attached to principles adopted for a specific design. Since technology impacts our daily lives, then the end products should reflect on every aspect of our lives, which is personal, social, and environmental.
Philosophy of design affects users’ happiness; therefore, all core competencies are irreplaceable. What best serves the interest of the user and those who are impacted by it. This parameter raises the question; how can societal values be incorporate in engineering designs? And which of these values should there be without tipping the scale? Design is a process with multiple processes, and since such values need critical analysis, engineers’ best practice would be to incorporate different values at different stages of production. The first stage, problem formulation, offers a foundation for the application of most values. The problem needs to be well defined. A well-defined problem means thorough research into it, how it affects the people, what causes it, how the problem affects the people, and the extent of damage the problem has caused beyond what meets the eye. Engineering designs are not meant to solve a one-time problem but provide a solution to the seen and unseen challenges. For example, when an engineer is called to set up a bridge, other than crossing the river, factors like durability adaptability, cost, who uses the bridge, the river’s speed, the width of the river, location, and labor are focal points. The more information an engineer has, the more accurate they define the problem.
The ethical stance of the final product makes customers happy. The nature of engineering is concerned with how things ought to be to achieve certain goals. The overall objective Is customer satisfaction. All concepts leading up to the final product need to be ethical if the project is within the code of conduct. No matter how the engineer would like to do things, there is a guideline on how things should be done. Such parameters are as minute as the right calculations and ration of materials to the process itself from start to finish. Certain actions need to be taken for things to run in specific ways. Knowing this, engineers can now work in integrity and prevent self-sabotage through shortcuts. They should work things as they ought to be and not as they wish to be maintaining all standards during the design cycle. Therefore, it rolls back to defining the guiding principles to be used during the design process.
Question 2
The article chosen is a smart-phone. The general purpose of a phone is communication between two persons in a different geographical area. The telephone’s inception came about from the need to have a mobile device to communicate when the telephone was no longer convenient. A smart-phone though maintaining the general-purpose is designed to be far more than a communication tool. It Is used as a social tool made possible by technological advancements. The smart-phone industry has seen phones range between both ends of the spectrum; some are cheap others are outrageously expensive. So the question then arises whether low-quality products are ethical.
Quality in the context of phones can be defined as productivity, reliability, or performance. It is the sustainability of a particular object to its general-purpose. The majority of the population uses cheap phones because they serve the same purpose, communication, and socialization. These two aspects of a smart-phone do not change; what changes is the experience of using high-end phones and cheap ones. Cheap, however, does not mean substandard. The difference between an expensive and a cheap phone comes in the amount of technology that goes into its products such as camera quality, screens, and in-store specs. Cheap phones have lower quality cameras and lack new specs, but communication’s basic function remains the same.
Corporate responsibility would argue that companies are in existence solely for profit engineering, hence produce cheap products, but ethicists agree on the moral ground each corporate stands by. Each company behaves within the guidelines of some principles just as human agents. This notion brings about social contract incorporate vis a vis the actual contract that charters companies to continue operations for society’s progress. Companies producing cheap phones are in existed to cater to the needs of the majority who would otherwise be locked out of the product. Even though their end product is cheap, the purpose is meant, which makes it ethically upright. The company’s duty of care to society and the people’s demands are in coexistence, making the product of quality. Ethical duty calls for honesty in advertising, which seeks to inform the consumer on the phone without exaggeration or motive to sell it for what it is not. Under social contract, the company must ensure its customers have the information required to decide that will improve their quality of life.
Advertisements for phones, however, fail to follow the social contract rues. There is a dilemma between makes sales and consumer education. When a company fails to add gist to their advertisement, its sales will plunder hence the illusion that cheap phones are more than they appear. Technically it is not in their place to be ethically correct in how they choose to sell phones. Florman states, “the codes of ethics for engineers are based upon the deceptive platitude that the professional’s obligations to the public- the ultimate client” as long as the consumer sees nothing wrong in the campaigns, then the engineers are politically correct. After all, he continues, “…the government bears the responsibility of enforcing the law to determine what is morally wrong or right.” What matters is the process the engineers used to arrive at the phone. The end justifies the means, and if the phone offers what it promises to offer, then there is no breach in the social contract or moral code of ethics for engineers.
Question 3; washing Machine
Technology results from intentional attempts to meet human needs; it is neither good nor bad, but useful. Instrumentalists believe technology is a way human beings achieve what is important, and the artifact intends to solve a particular issue. How human beings chose to use it is up to them.
Substantivism, on the other hand, states technology has value. In developing technologies, choices are made depending on the values of the engineer and the consumer.
The washer was one of the ingenious technologies ever invented. The machine has come a long way to support feminism and the place of women in society. It was an idea that gave women access to the workplace while still carrying out their domestic chores. During the Victorian era, women’s role was taking care of the family and the family home. But with progressive civilization, the desire for women to attend work became significant that alternatives to household chores came about. Washers were designed to easily was clothes, a task that would take hours when done by hand. It was from this design that dryers were invented. Community laundry shops were installed, and women would now plan their work and maintain their homes.
Cultural considerations were made when designing the washing machine, and engineers considered a machine’s authenticity to do the same work done by hand but faster. It was argued that the technology gave women a better hand than men as it serviced more of their needs than did those of men. In any technological category, there two factors that affect the choice of design, power, distribution, and design.- are we going to develop and adopt the thing or not? (Langdon, 1980 PP 127). The answer is yes or no. This technology was built from the imminent need for ease of burden by women as the political atmosphere demanded more women In the workforce. World War II saw men break free from stereotyping women and placing them in a cocoon of “ideal” by being confined behind the home walls.
Ideally, technologies are ways of building order in the world. Many technologies are important for our everyday lives. Langdon (127) states, “…societies choose structures for technologies that influence how people will work, communicate, travel, consume and forth over a very long time.” Values would alter the design if the engineers did not have the same belief. They would develop a design that is complicated to use in the household.
An example would be to have washers that are too huge, and they would require a room. In so doing, many would not afford them. They would also create a washer that is technical, in that, one would need to move chunky parts. If that were the case, they would not be ideal for household consumption.
The engineer needs to consider the values of the user before deciding to design a project. According to instrumentalists, the user of technology is responsible for the implication of the use. Therefore, the intention of the technology is important in deciding whether or not it should be designed. For example, an engineer would find it hard to design a bomb to kill people intentionally.