Since I began my present place in Fall 2020, I’ve been educating Engineering Ethics each fall. The Engineering Ethics course satisfies a common schooling requirement for engineering majors, so as a substitute of taking intro to philosophy or intro ethics, they’ll take this discipline-specific philosophy course provided by way of the Division of Humanities and Philosophy. The course helps the engineering program’s accreditation with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Know-how (ABET) by offering instruction in moral obligations within the engineering career. Most college students who take the course are first-year engineering majors.
Once I was assigned the course, I reached out to a few colleagues who train Engineering Ethics to search out out what to anticipate from college students and what they discovered labored for them. They each mentioned that case research are necessary for getting college students to interact with the fabric. And my expertise has positively aligned with that remark.
The targets I had for the course had been: studying about skilled ethics codes, ethical theories and ethical rules and making use of them to issues in engineering; pondering critically about know-how and human values; and creating sturdy arguments.
The subsequent drawback I had was discovering a textbook that might handle these targets. The traditional textual content is Harris et al., Engineering Ethics: Ideas and Circumstances, however I ended up selecting Ethics for Engineers by Martin Peterson. I selected it as a result of it had a well-known really feel; it has the identical construction of the modern ethical issues textbook I had been utilizing. It begins off with skilled codes of ethics and ethical theories, adopted by specific issues within the career (whistle-blowing, conflicts of curiosity, cost-benefit evaluation, accountability and the issue of many fingers, and so forth.), and ending on extra “philosophical” subjects, like technological pessimism and optimism, whether or not technological artifacts are value-laden, and sustainability. Case research seem in each chapter. The teacher guide additionally consists of hyperlinks to movies to complement the textual description of case research. We spend a great deal of class time going from the final (idea and rules) to the precise (making use of rules to a case research), and again to the final (classes realized from the case research).
Content material-wise, my greatest contribution to the fabric is including per week on variety. Whereas the skilled codes of ethics for engineers stress the significance of defending the protection, well being, and welfare of the general public, traditionally, engineers (and different leaders—scientists, enterprise leaders, politicians, and so forth.) haven’t thought-about the influence of their choices on everybody, significantly essentially the most weak. By together with per week on variety, college students can see how know-how has been discriminatory and inaccessible to some and see that engineers have the potential to engineer a world that’s inclusive and accessible.
I take advantage of Sara Goering’s chapter “Pondering In a different way: Neurodiversity and Neural Engineering” to provoke the subject. I introduce the social mannequin of incapacity and the neurodiversity motion and use examples from Goering to distinction variations in pursuits and priorities between these utilizing the tech and people making the tech. Goering advocates for a mannequin of know-how growth that companions with the meant know-how customers so as to make know-how that higher matches customers’ wants. I additionally point out making engineering areas extra welcoming to neurodiverse college students and embody a slide with details about the college’s Incapacity Help Providers to remind college students about that workplace if they might want it.
The second subject beneath variety is race and gender/intercourse bias. The readings and movies present how vehicles aren’t designed with girls in thoughts and focus on racial bias in software program. I additionally assign a report by the Society for Ladies in Engineering that reviews on the sexist, racist, and ageist experiences of engineers. I finish with a slide sharing assets for minorities in engineering, such because the Nationwide Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Ladies Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Skilled Engineers, and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. Making engineering extra welcoming to various individuals might assist to forestall the event of discriminatory know-how.
As for pedagogy, class time is a mixture of interactive lectures, movies, dialogue of ideas and case research, and journaling. The journaling train promotes engagement with the fabric that goes past the type of memorization or scientific problem-solving that college students apply of their math, science, and engineering lessons. Journaling occurs virtually each class. I present college students a writing immediate for them to mirror on the fabric, ask questions, suppose critically, or make connections to their different lessons or experiences. A few of the prompts function apply articulating a philosophical idea, like “clarify one metaethical place. What do you want, dislike, or not perceive about it?” or making use of Kant’s categorical crucial to a brief vignette. Different prompts are based mostly off of quick case research within the e-book: “What do you suppose is the proper factor to do? Why? Be sure you clarify your reply.” And a few prompts are extra open-ended: “What are two necessary classes or takeaways from in the present day’s class and what’s a query you could have based mostly on the fabric introduced?”
After journaling time, we focus on what college students wrote. Generally they reiterate details of the category (which is nice reinforcement of the fabric for others within the class), generally their feedback or questions serve to inform me of misconceptions of the fabric and permit me to deal with them, generally college students make insightful connections to materials within the class, in different lessons, in their very own lives and experiences, and generally the journals are areas for college students to simply discover their curiosity. It’s additionally a possibility for that quiet pupil, who has now had a couple of minutes to course of and articulate their ideas, to contribute to the dialogue.
Though the primary concern for the course is equipping future engineers with the moral reasoning instruments they might want of their profession, there’s additionally a side of inspiring college students to be educated, engaged, and demanding residents, shoppers, and customers of know-how. I actually take pleasure in educating Engineering Ethics. As a thinker of science focused on science and values, it permits me to interact STEM college students in necessary conversations in regards to the social influence of their work and the connection between science and human values.
The Syllabus Showcase of the APA Weblog is designed to share insights into the syllabi of philosophy educators. We embody syllabi of their authentic, unedited format that showcase all kinds of philosophy lessons. We might love so that you can be part of this venture. Please contact Sequence Editors, Dr. Brynn Welch by way of bwelch@uab.edu or Dr. Smrutipriya Pattnaik by way of smrutipriya23@gmail.com, or Editor of the Instructing Beat, Dr. Sabrina D. MisirHiralall by way of sabrinamisirhiralall@apaonline.org with potential submissions.
Vanessa A. Bentley
Assistant Professor
at
College of Central Oklahoma
Vanessa Bentley is Assistant Professor within the Division of Humanities and Philosophy on the College of Central Oklahoma, the place she teaches programs in philosophy of science, feminist philosophy, and utilized ethics. Her analysis pursuits are in neuroethics, bioethics, and feminist practices in science, significantly in cognitive neuroscience and the neuroimaging of gender/intercourse.
