When discussing the new strategic development plan for the HSD department of mechanical and process engineering a brainstorming revealed an interesting point on how ethis and values when education future engineers are taken into consideration. When looking for examples, the German "Dieselgate" directly came in everbodys mind.
The question everbody asked was, is it ok for an engineer to use his/her know-how to manipulate a system on purpose, knowing that it will be against the law. Another question I would like to discuss is, if it is ok for an engineer to build weapons etc. which might kill people?
When discussing the new strategic development plan for the HSD department of mechanical and process engineering a brainstorming revealed an interesting point on how ethis and values when education future engineers are taken into consideration. When looking for examples, the German "Dieselgate" directly came in everbodys mind.
The question everbody asked was, is it ok for an engineer to use his/her know-how to manipulate a system on purpose, knowing that it will be against the law. Another question I would like to discuss is, if it is ok for an engineer to build weapons etc. which might kill people?
Very interesting point!
I think doing anything against the law is not ok, regardless if you're an engineer or not. And as a citizen you should be able to consider what actions are suitable in our society and what are not.
Regarding the question if it's ok to build weapons I really do not have an answer. Producing weapons for police officers and such people trying to protect the citicens it might actually be a good thing to do but you never know to which part of the world the weapons are going to be sold. So I'm kind of torn back and forth.
Nice reflection!
I think engineers should always have an ethical behavior. They have knowledge to improve people's life, so they should use it in this way. As far as ethical behavior include honesty, integrity, understanding... they cannot act agains the law! They should always follow the rules and, if they think that the rules could be better, they should try to change them!
In the near future engineers can design new technologies which should be not considered in our legislation. They cannot do whatever they want because there aren't laws about it! They must always be ethical following a simple rule: do what is better for people.
Regarding the second topic of your post, I think it's too difficult to answer. Should we find someone specialist in ethical issues to help us answering? I'm against weapons, but as Alexander said, sometimes are useful to some people.