Engineering Ethics

This paper discusses a project in which we are currently engaged entitled “Orienting Engineering Ethics in terms of China and Chinese Values: Its Significance Based on Three Case Studies.” This research has a two-fold aim: 1 to identify and rectify shortcomings in curricula addressing the ethical, social, and political dimensions of engineering in international environments, as well as misunderstandings in international engineering environments that result from these shortcomings; 2. to identify and rectify deficiencies within engineering curricula offered in China, as well as safety concerns that result from these deficiencies.

As this research is ongoing, here we simply share our findings thus far: the nature of shortcomings within current curricula and the way we seek to rectify these deficiencies by researching large-scale engineering projects in China and writing case studies to be used in courses dealing with the ethical, social, and political dimensions of engineering. These case studies address the decision to build the Three Gorges dam, the construction of the West-East pipeline, and coal mining and energy in China. We focus on differences between China and other countries rather than China and any other specific country. Although our project focuses on China specifically, these issues in China are relevant in addressing global engineering challenges, improving cross-cultural understanding and strengthening international collaborations as a result.

I discuss the predicament that engineering-ethics education in Japan now faces and propose a solution to this. The predicament is professional motivation, i.e., the problem of how to motivate engineering students to maintain their professional integrity. The special professional responsibilities of engineers are often explained either as an implicit social contract between the profession and society (the “social-contract” view), or as requirements for membership in the profession (the “membership-requirement” view). However, there are empirical data that suggest that such views will not do in Japan, and this is the predicament that confronts us. In this country, the profession of engineering did not exist 10 years ago and is still quite underdeveloped. Engineers in this country do not have privileges, high income, or high social status. Under such conditions, neither the social-contract view nor the membership-requirement view is convincing. As an alternative approach that might work in Japan, I propose a pride-based view. The notion of pride has been analyzed in the virtue-ethics literature, but the full potential of this notion has not been explored. Unlike other kinds of pride, professional pride can directly benefit the general public by motivating engineers to do excellent work even without social rewards, since being proud of themselves is already a reward. My proposal is to foster a particular kind of professional pride associated with the importance of professional services in society, as the motivational basis for professional integrity. There is evidence to suggest that this model works.

Mass casualty attacks in recent years have demonstrated the need to include “evil intent” as a design consideration. Three recent actual or potential weapons of mass destruction (WMD) attacks did not involve nuclear bombs or other devices designed as weapons, but rather benign objects used with evil intent. Just as unplanned events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and user misuse have been codified into design requirements based on the likelihood and potential impact of the event, “evil intent” has to become part of the design process for buildings, vehicles, equipment, and other items. The endstate should be reasonable additions to existing codes and standards such that it is clear what is and is not designed for. In the absence of specific design guidance, professionals with appropriate expertise can assess potential for “evil intent” and provide recommendations to design out or warn against this potential harm to public safety, particularly when codified requirements are not
present.

During the past decade, the “script” concept, indicating how technologies prescribe human actions, has acquired a central place in STS. Until now, the concept has mainly functioned in descriptive settings. This article will deploy it in a normative setting. When technologies coshape human actions, they give material answers to the ethical question of how to act. This implies that engineers are doing “ethics by other means”: they materialize morality. The article will explore the implications of this insight for engineering ethics. It first augments the script concept by developing the notion of technological mediation. After this, it investigates how the concept of mediation could be made fruitful for design ethics. It discusses how the ambition to design behaviorinfluencing technologies raises moral questions itself and elaborates two methods for anticipating technological mediation in the design process: performing mediation analyses and using an augmented version of constructive ...

Engineering practice is regulated in many countries around the world and engineers are held to very high standards. In the United States, engineering students learn some of these guidelines of practice in school and must then improve their knowledge of and adhere to them as practicing engineers. Depending on the project location, local guidelines, and other challenges the project poses, engineers who are adherents of a particular religion can experience multiple conflicts of interest. Faith or a personal belief system may lie in irresolute contrast with questionable cultural beliefs, overtly or covertly corrupt business norms and practices, and ambiguous, arbitrary or seemingly non-existent guidelines of practice.
Even where local ethical codes exist, their foundations and enforcement system may be tenuous, or the local laws may be deliberately bypassed to facilitate graft. Whether they are a fresh graduate with an idealistic notion of their new role in the workplace or an experienced project manager, each Christian engineer must confront these issues and ultimately seek to resolve them with their profession’s tenets and personal faith in order to be effective on the job.
This paper details the experiences of a young Christian and fresh engineering graduate born outside the United States and working in his first roles in civil engineering practice. Qualitative and quantitative information was used to depict the extent to which local guidelines conformed with or deviated from those set by a renowned body like the American Society of Civil Engineers. As an interesting parallel observation, personal accounts and experiences of other engineer co-workers who are adherents of another faith were sought and found to markedly agree in some cases – and disagree in others – with the experience of the Christian engineer. The work experiences were with both local and foreign-owned firms working on similar projects in the same country but there appeared to be similar conflicts between personal faith, ethics, and local business norms experienced while working at each. This suggests some sort of ‘cultural acclimatization’ where expatriate firms with otherwise strict codes of practice back in their home countries become witting or unwitting accomplices in questionable practices overseas.
Some lessons learned here could help prepare (i) Christian engineering firms and engineers for such conflicts of interest in the line of duty (ii) engineering educators at Christian institutions to emphasize integration of faith with not just learning but practice.

This paper describes a one-day workshop format for introducing ethics into the engineering curriculum prepared at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez (UPRM). It responds to the ethics criteria newly integrated into the accreditation process by the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET). It also employs an ethics across the curriculum (EAC) approach; engineers identify the ethical issues, write cases that dramatize these issues, and then develop exercises making use of these cases that are specially tailored to mainstream engineering classes. The different activities and strategies employed in this workshop are set forth. Specific references are made to the cases and exercises developed as a result of these workshops. The paper ends by summarizing the different assessments made of the workshop by addressing the following questions: how did it contribute to the overall ABET effort at UPRM; could other universities benefit from a similar activity; and how did the participants evaluate the workshop?

The paper identifies three failures of current engineering ethics and suggests that a post-normal turn may help redesign a more demanding ethics for engineering practice. It outlines some difficulties that
such a post-normal engineering ethics may face, especially in the French context.

Concorde was a revolutionary aircraft when it entered service in 1976. Not only was it the first supersonic commercial airliner as well as the longest serving, it served as a national symbol for France and an icon of the aviation industry. This was despise the fact that Aerospatiale and British Aircraft Corporation, both funded in part by their respectable governments, reported annual losses on production and manufacturing as ultimately there were as few as 20 were made. In order to cover its production cost and compete with other aircraft to make it economically viable, it needed its design to give it the edge. It did so in two aspects: speed and distance. The jet could go a longer distance in about half the time compared to other commercial planes due in part to its turbojet engines produced by Rolls Royce propelling the jet to Mach 2.04 speeds (Aviation Safety Database). The people of France identified a notion of national pride when they raced outside just as they heard the supersonic boom and felt their house shake. It was able to inspire millions around the globe including my own interests in aviation and engineering. Concorde held special design features, which couldn't be found on any other aircraft of its day and strategically paved the road for the future of technological flight. From its light aluminum structure and odd delta-shaped wings to its digital flight controls, high pressure hydraulic and air-intake systems, Concorde exuded innovation. It wasn't until a tragic day in July of 2000 when Air France flight 4590 was deployed for take off in France's capital but came to a crashing halt just minutes later, that this stylish yet groundbreaking aircraft would have its demise in sight. There were many factors that came into play in the investigation of the crash

Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life of people. The services provided by engineers are required to take into consideration the safety, health and welfare of the public. Engineering Ethics is of relevance to the majority of people within the field of computing which has its own particular ethical concerns. Computer Ethics (with Software Engineering Ethics as its subfield) has thus been developed as a specific branch of Applied Ethics. It is important to recognize that prudent ethical judgment is an essential ...

Cet article retrace et analyse l'histoire exemplaire de l'Aérotrain, ce train sur coussin d'air dont le prototype mobilisa l'imaginaire des grandes vitesses avant l'adoption et la diffusion du TGV en France. La chronologie des événements présente l'aventure de Jean Bertin, le " père " de l'Aérotrain, comme une tragédie classique, décrivant l'inventeur un peu à la manière d'un Auguste Detoeuf. L'analyse qui suit montre que les raisons techniques, économiques, politiques et culturelles ne suffisent pas à expliquer complètement l'échec de l'Aérotrain. Cherchant à discerner ce qui dans cette histoire relève de " l'imprudence " de Jean Bertin, cette réflexion est une invitation faite aux ingénieurs - et à ceux qui les entourent, les financent ou attendent des retombées de leurs inventions - à penser leur travail non seulement en termes de succès mais aussi d'échec potentiel avec toutes les répercussions personnelles et sociales que cela peut impliquer. " La vieille notion arostotélicienne de la prudence était beaucoup plus riche que la signification contemporaine et quotidienne que ce mot laisse deviner. La prudence comme une vertu morale essentielle n'a pas grand chose à voir avec le calcul froid des risques éventuels que porte une décision. Elle dépasse même d'idée d'une prévoyance plus large qui pèse les conséquences de ses actes pour le bien-être (comme les utilitaristes le défendent). Elle a une connotation de sagesse dans le jugement pratique, c'est à dire une compétence à juger une situation complexe. Ce qui suppose une capacité à prendre une certaine distance par rapport aux enjeux en question. Le manque de prudence dans ce sens aristotélien est la perspective à partir de laquelle Christelle Didier analyse l'histoire par moment invraisemblable et dramatique de l'Aérotrain et de son inventeur Jean Bertin. " (Geert Demuijnck introduction de l'article pour l'ouvrage Ethique industrielle)

Technical design can produce exclusionary and even discriminatory effects for users. A lack of discriminatory intent is insufficient to avoid discriminatory design, since implicit assumptions about users rarely include all relevant user demographics, and in some cases, designing for all relevant users is actually impossible. To minimize discriminatory effects of technical design, an actively anti-discriminatory design perspective must be adopted. This article provides examples of discriminatory user exclusion, then defining exclusionary design in terms of disaffordances and dysaffordances. Once these definitions are in place, principles of anti-discriminatory design are advanced, drawing upon a method of phenomenological variation employed in the context of standpoint epistemology.

SEFI Annual Conference "Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Engineering Education Excellence", 17-21 September 2018, Copenhagen

Recently, the use of case studies for teaching engineering ethics attracted criticism pointing to its inadequacy in capturing the complexity of the profession [19], [5]. Our paper examines case instruction of engineering ethics, arguing that the microethical use of this teaching method does not fully capture the metaphysical and epistemological dimension of engineering. We proceed by looking in the first section at the beginnings of case instruction, highlighting its main characteristics and benefits according to empirical research. We then zoom in on the use of case studies for engineering ethics instruction, presenting four deficiencies that fail to fully materialize the strengths of the method. We claim that these deficiencies are rooted in a microethical approach to engineering ethics education, which leads to a dilution of the major features of case pedagogy.

Modern philosophy recognizes two major ethical theories: deontology, which encourages adherence to rules and fulfillment of duties or obligations; and consequentialism, which evaluates morally significant actions strictly on the basis of their actual or anticipated outcomes. Both involve the systematic application of universal abstract principles, reflecting the culturally dominant paradigm of technical rationality. Professional societies promulgate codes of ethics with which engineers are expected to comply (deontology), while courts and the public generally assign liability to engineers primarily in accordance with the results of their work, whether intended or unintended (consequentialism). A third option, prominent in ancient philosophy, has reemerged recently: virtue ethics, which recognizes that sensitivity to context and practical judgment are indispensable in particular concrete situations, and therefore rightly focuses on the person who acts, rather than the action itself. Beneficial character traits—i.e., virtues—are identified within a specific social practice in light of the internal goods that are unique to it. This paper proposes a comprehensive framework for implementing virtue ethics within engineering.

Responding to the demands of the technology-driven global economy, engineers increase their technical competencies, improve cross-cultural communication skills, and become more innovative, entrepreneurial and flexible (Continental, 2006). As the demands on the engineer are increasing and the role of an engineer evolves and becomes more prominent, the importance of teaching engineering ethics to engineering students is increasing too. This article investigates current trends in the teaching of engineering ethics in the context of diverse approaches to evaluating the responsibility of an engineer. The article reveals the complexity of the issue, which confirms the need for future engineers to be competent in dealing with ethical dilemmas. The engineer must be aware of the fact that his or her invention will initiate a chain of events that will involve the use of this invention and will have various social, environmental and legal ramifications, which should be taken into account. The engineer must also be sufficiently prepared to make ethical decisions without sufficient guidance, as the full range of possible future scenarios cannot be foreseen.

Nowadays, smart home devices have started to take a part in everything in our life, which mainly have been developed to consist from brain computer interface (BCI). In recent months, Neuralink BCI (1024-Electode) has been approved to be used by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA. That makes the ethical related studies have more attention to apply these devices and technologies in our daily life with more security. In this work, the ethical challenges of smart home systems that use BCI for personal monitoring, such as Neuralink Interfaces, have been reviewed, analysed and discussed regarding the fundamental principles in 'Statement of Ethical Principles for the Engineering Profession' of the UK. Firstly, a brief introduction of Neuralink BCI technology and important applications in daily life were discussed with related ethics issues. Then, proposed solutions and recommendations for every situation have been introduced and discussed as well. The main proposed ways to address that are establishing and introducing the related laws and rules, technology development of security and safety, and educate for acceptance culture in the society.

‘Virtual Ethics’, was written at the behest of Jenny Chapman at the BBC, who wanted an introduction to an ethics for immersive technology. Since there is little of such yet, I have started much from scratch. The essay is general, and is written for those who need of tools for ethical deliberation regarding new technology.
Yet, the essay, among other things, also attempts a liberal expansion of the set of objects for moral concern.

I thank Chris Bobonich for reading.

The relationship between ideology and learning remains insufficiently theorized and sparsely investigated in the learning sciences. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s theorization of ideology, Judith Butler’s notion of the (un)grievability of lives, and Sara Ahmed’s construct of stickiness, we illustrate how insights from critical social theory are indis- pensable to understanding processes of learning and how perspectives from the learning sciences can enrich critical social theory. Through the analysis of a classroom discussion on the use of militarized drones in an undergraduate engineering ethics course, we show how ideological convergence among participants constructed locally significant categories of “civilian,” “terrorist,” and (un)grievability, which narrowed the possible trajectories for students’ disciplinary learning in engineering and engineering ethics. Our analysis also shows that fleeting moments of ideological expansion offered opportunities for new learning; however, most of these instances of possibility were not sustained through the classroom discussion. We explicate how ideological convergences and expansions, as interactional achievements, profoundly matter for disciplinary learning and students’ identities. In conclusion, we explore the implications of our findings for broader contexts of learning and for the field of the learning sciences.

Environmentally Conscious Supply Chain Management (ECSCM) refers to the control exerted over all immediate and eventual environmental effects of products and processes associated with converting raw materials into final products. While much work has been done in this area, the focus has traditionally been on either: product recovery (recycling, remanufacturing, or re-use) or the product design function only (e.g., design for environment). Environmental considerations in manufacturing are often viewed as separate from traditional, value-added considerations. However, the case can be made that professional engineers have an ethical responsibility to consider the immediate and eventual environmental impacts of products and processes that they design and/or manage. This paper describes ECSCM as a component of engineering ethics, and highlights the major issues associated with ethical decision-making in supply chain management.

The purpose of this research is to analyze whether whistleblowing is ethical and under which conditions it can be morally required. The topic is chosen because it is a contemporary issue which has a great impact on the project progress. The main hypothesis is formulated as " Whistleblowing is an ethical behavior because in an environment that supports whistleblowers through encouraging self-regulation and accountability, management can ensure that the business activities are protected from unethical exercises ". In order to accept or discard this hypothesis, a theoretical research is conducted followed by case study examples. After research, it has been found out that whistleblowing is a great tool in project management to avoid unlawful activities and it is morally required under some conditions.

How and why should we teach creative writing workshops to engineers? The basic claim, defended here with both reference to scientific studies on creativity and anecdotal evidence drawn from teaching experience, is that creative writing workshops can be taught in such a way as to help future innovators to both better understand the creative process and to think deeply about the ethical and social impacts involved in acts of creation. The somewhat paradoxical claim animating this article is the idea that the people who may really need courses in creative writing are not writers but engineers, those whose creations may bring us towards science fiction futures, and who, for this very reason, need to be capable of creating fictions as a guide for imagining the ethical consequences of their innovations.

SEFI Annual Conference "Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Engineering Education Excellence", 17-21 September 2018, Copenhagen

Recently, the use of case studies for teaching engineering ethics attracted criticism pointing to its inadequacy in capturing the complexity of the profession [19], [5]. Our paper examines case instruction of engineering ethics, arguing that the microethical use of this teaching method does not fully capture the metaphysical and epistemological dimension of engineering. We proceed by looking in the first section at the beginnings of case instruction, highlighting its main characteristics and benefits according to empirical research. We then zoom in on the use of case studies for engineering ethics instruction, presenting four deficiencies that fail to fully materialize the strengths of the method. We claim that these deficiencies are rooted in a microethical approach to engineering ethics education, which leads to a dilution of the major features of case pedagogy.

1. 7 Forewords 2. Ethics: as a science of morals and a general framework focused on the human interest 3. Engineering ethics: how to develop new technology from an ethical point of view. Some practical steps 4. Some last remarks about enterprise/business ethics on behalf of the role of engineering Objective: To give young people a framework to help them with the choices one has to make in the develop-­‐ ment of responsible technology 7 Forewords: 1. When we speak about ethics, we focus on the second question of I. Kant: what must I do? But I also like to take into account the following other questions: what can I know? What can I hope? What is man? These questions are important when speaking about the evolution of engineering and technology, but I will focus only on the ethical question. 2. As the curriculum of philosophy of Schleswig-­‐Holstein proofs, these questions can be raised at every level of teaching: in primary school as well as on the secondary level and in higher education. It is up to the teacher or professor to find the right tone because these days eve-­‐ rybody, even children as young as 1 year, use modern technology. I'm thinking, for example, of how intuitively they use iPads and tablets. And there are software developers who devel-­‐ op special games for these youngsters. On the other hand, the colourful and funny interlock-­‐ ing puzzle mats which may be joined together to soften the playground for children and oth-­‐ er soft plastics (the lovely little yellow ducks) contain dangerous phthalates, so that Europe had to issue a warning for their use. 3. Don't think only about developments of electronics or software. There are also important developments in every field of technique and technology: chemistry, construction, mechan-­‐ ics, biotechnology,…. and they are becoming more and more intertwined. 4. It is important to make a simple distinction between 'technique' and 'technology': technique is the result of experience; technology is the result of scientific research. Most utensils, used by a single man without extra power or energy are technique, developed by a craftsman. Since the development of engineering (19th century), the people who have gone to high school to study physics, chemistry, electrics, electronics, … and who conducted research in laboratories, they have been developing 'technology'. There's a current saying in the world of engineering: a craftsman does what he does without knowing how; the engineer can prove a lot of things (theoretically), but he's not sure they will work… 5. My exposé is opposed to the thesis, many times reiterated by engineers: " technology is neu-­‐ tral, the only responsible man is the user of it. You know: Just because I made a knife that 1 This text was in a preparation for a contribution at the conference on ethics educaton in Łódź (Poland), 27-­‐28/05/2016

Sebuah profesi memiliki komitmen moral yang tinggi tertuang dalam bentuk aturan khusus yang menjadi pegangan bagi setiap orang yang mengembangkan profesi yang bersangkutan. Tujuannya adalah agar profesional memberikan jasa atau produk yang sebaik-baiknya kepada masyarakat serta melindungi dari perbuatan yang tidak profesional, dengan demikian akan mendapatkan kepercayaan di mata masyarakat.

The Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster is an engineering disaster, happened in the United States on February 1st 2003. The space shuttle exploded during re-entry, killing all crews aboard. The cause of the disaster is hot gases penetrate into internal wing structure, causing space shuttle to lose stability and exploded. In this report, the disaster will be discussed based on engineering ethics. Therefore, this report will give more emphasis on the ethics of the managers and engineers during the disaster.
The cause of the disaster can be divided into two; in terms of the hardware (the space shuttle itself) and the people behind it. The space shuttle design is faulty, even during the first flight, and therefore the cost to redesign the shuttle is too high at that time. For the second cause, the people at NASA has neglected the ethics for the sake of meeting mission targets. These causes will be explained further in the analysis section of the report.

This paper describes the current review and revision of some Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) criteria, in particular, the student outcome on ethical and professional responsibility. The proposaed changes on the said outcome have raised deep concern in the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Liberal Education/Engineering and Society Division. The ABET statement of the outcome which is " to develop the ability of the student to understand ethical and professional responsibility " is merely adopted as one of the program/student outcomes of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Philippine Technological Council Accreditation Commission Board for Engineering and Technology (PTC-ACBET). Based on the observations/findings of the authors, most institutions which have shifted from input-based into outcomes-based education (OBE) in their engineering programs need a model syllabus for courses where the topic engineering ethics or professional ethics is embedded. Hence, the authors present as the course syllabus that they use in teaching the topics in engineering ethics which are integrated in the course required by CHED for engineering programs with board examination " Engineering Law, Contracts and Ethics. " The authors share as well some teaching and learning activities and assessment tools which they use in the course and find effective. Keywords–Outcomes-based education, student or program outcome, ethical and professional responsibility

Après une étude des discours sur l'éthique produits pas les associations d'ingénieurs aux Etats-Unis, au Québec et en Allemagne, j'ai tenté d'expliquer leur absence, jusqu'à récemment en France. Cherchant des éléments constitutifs de l'ethos des ingénieurs français, j'ai alors étudié l'histoire des contenus de formations, et en particulier des humanités, au sein desquels est apparue récemment l'éthique. J'ai montré que les contenus des " humanités " s'inscrivait dans les histoire des écoles : l'idéal encyclopédique s'opposant à celui de l'engagement social, les deux s'opposant à l'approche professionnelle de la formation des ingénieurs instrumentalisant les contenus dits " non techniques". Mais les rhétoriques éthique des associations d'ingénieurs et les projets de formation éthique pour les futurs ingénieurs ne disent rien de la représentation qu'ont les acteurs eux-mêmes des enjeux éthiques liés à leur profession. Afin d'étudier l'ethos des ingénieurs Ainsi, j'ai mis en place une enquête quantitative auprès d'ingénieurs diplômés, contacté par l'intermédiaire des associations d'anciens élèves des écoles de la région nord Pas-de-Calais. Après avoir élucidé l'étendue la plus large possible du champ couvert par " l'éthique du génie ", j'ai visé à travers l'analyse des représentations qu'ont les ingénieurs des relation entre les sciences, les techniques, la société et leur profession, de rendre compte de certains aspects de l'ethos de la profession. Cet ethos professionnel est d'abord apparu comme déterminé par l'identité professionnelle subjective des ingénieurs. Ceux qui ont une vision positive de leur profession et de son rôle dans la société sont moins inquiets que les autres des impacts négatifs du développement techniques. Ceux qui sont plus proches d'une identité de manager se montrent très sensibles à l'importance du " facteur humain " tandis que les " experts " défendent la neutralité de leur travail et rejette l'idée d'une responsabilité personnelle pour la finalité ultime des techniques auxquelles ils contribuent. Parce que la question de l'éthique des techniques est entrée en politique, les représentation des enjeux éthiques de la profession et des techniques dépendant aussi des attitudes politiques des ingénieurs. Les ingénieurs de droite sont plus optimistes à l'égard des techniques et sont favorables à une régulation par la profession elle-même, tandis que ceux de gauche se montrent plus ouvert à une démocratisation des décisions techniques. Mais, finalement, la grande majorité à une vision technocratique des décisions. Par ailleurs, leur position vis-à-vis de la politique un peu distante les laisse à l'écart d'une préoccupation majeure de l'éthique de la technologie : la maîtrise citoyenne des techniques. Parce que le catholicisme est engagé d'une façon particulière dans la formation morale des croyants, les représentations éthiques des enjeux éthiques de la profession dépendent aussi des attitudes religieuses des ingénieurs. Les ingénieurs catholiques se montrent plus favorables à une codification de l'éthique et à une morale de principe, en général. Porteur d'une vision de la technique au service de l'Homme, ils se montrent plus confiants dans les techniques que les autres ingénieurs. Ainsi leur désir de repères éthiques rencontre peu une des questions centrales de l'éthique des technologies : le risque. L'enquête montre aussi que les ingénieurs constituent un groupe très homogène du point de vue de ses valeurs professionnelles. Pour l'avenir, on pourrait penser que la féminisation apporte un regard nouveau et donc une modification, au fur et à mesure de leur percée dans le métier, de l'ethos collectif. Dans les faits, le partage du travail dans la profession entre les genres pourrait réduire de beaucoup l'impact de cette évolution. Tandis que les propos sur l'éthique émis au sein de la profession d'ingénieur dépendent fortement des contextes légaux et culturels dans lesquels ils sont produits, l'émergence de cours d'éthique dans les formations en France, au cours des dix dernières années, procède de deux dynamiques. Ils sont portés, selon le cas, par un idéal culturel ou par un idéal d'engagement social ; tous les deux s'opposent d'ailleurs à l'approche strictement professionnelle de la formation qui est, en définitive, la plus courante. Mais les rhétoriques éthique et les projets pédagogiques ne sont que des indicateurs des préoccupations éthiques des ingénieurs. Ainsi, après avoir élucidé les limites du champ de "l'éthique du génie", une enquête a été mise en place auprès d'ingénieurs diplômés, afin d'étudier leur éthique professionnelle. Il est apparu que les contours de cette éthique est déterminée par l'identité professionnelle subjective des ingénieurs. Les optimistes professionnels semblent, par exemple, moins inquiétés que les autres par les impacts négatifs du développement technique ; ceux qui se sentent plutôt manager se montrent très sensibles à l'importance du facteur humain, tandis que les experts défendent la neutralité de leur travail et rejette l'idée d'une responsabilité personnelle pour la finalité ultime des techniques auxquelles ils contribuent. Mais les positionnements éthiques des ingénieurs dépendent aussi de leurs attitudes politiques : ceux de droite, plus optimistes à l'égard des techniques, préfèrent que la régulation provienne de la profession, ceux de gauche, plus critiques, sont plus ouvert à une démocratisation des processus de décisions. Mais, finalement la vision majoritaire est technocratique et la position des ingénieurs, souvent à distance de la chose publique, les laisse à l'écart d'une préoccupation majeure de l'éthique de la technologie : la maîtrise citoyenne des techniques. Enfin, l'éthique des ingénieurs dépend des attitudes religieuses. Ainsi, les catholiques se montrent plus favorables à une codification de l'éthique et à une morale de principe. Mais parce qu'ils sont trop confiants dans les impact des techniques au service de l'Humain, leur désir de repères éthiques rencontre peu la question du risque qui est pourtant au cœur de l'éthique des technologies.
Having studied emergence of ethics discourses in the engineering profession, the development of ethics courses, shows that the humanities generally are carried by an ideal, either encyclopaedic, or social, both opposing to a strictly professional approach of the training. But rhetorics and educational projects are only indicators of the ethical concerns of the engineers. So, having clarified the limits of the field of engineering ethics, I set up an inquiry with graduated engineers, in order to study their professional ethics. It seemed that this one is determined by the professional identity of the engineers. The optimists seem less worried than the others of the negative impacts of techniques; Manager show themselves very sensitive to the importance of the human factor, the experts defend the neutrality of their work and reject the idea of a personal responsibility for the ultimate end of the techniques to which they take part. But the engineers' ethics also depends on political attitudes: those of right-hand side, more optimistic towards techniques, prefer a regulation by the profession itself, those of left-handler are more opened to a democratization of the decisions. But, finally the vision of the majority is technocratic and the position of the engineers, often at distance of the res publica, leaves them away from a major concern of the ethics of technology : technology assessment. Finally, the ethics of the engineers depends on religious attitudes. So, the Catholics are favorable to a codification of the ethics, but because they are too confident in the positive impact of the techniques in the service of the Human being, their desire of ethical guidelines meets little the question of the risk which is in the heart of the ethics of the technologies.