Return to the APA Newsletter on Teaching
Philosophy Index The following appeared in Volume 96, Number 2 (Spring 1997) of the APA Newsletters.
Eugene Schlossberger. The Ethical Engineer (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), 284 pp., softcover, $19.95. Reviewer: Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino, Florida Atlantic University
Eugene Schlossberger’s The Ethical Engineer is, on the whole, a good introduction to the growing field of engineering ethics, although I have some reservations about recommending it for use as the sole or main text in a course on this subject. I will first discuss the book’s suitability for students and, later, its suitability for faculty. In each of these discussions, I will first approach the book’s virtues and then outline its faults.
First of all, let me offer a few general words about the contents of the book. The book is well organized. It begins with a general introduction to the subject of ethics and moves to analyses of the more specific ethical issues encountered in the engineering profession. The author first discusses the nature of engineering ethics and of ethical decision making. Here, he makes a very compelling argument in favor of the ethical life as opposed to the life of mere consumption of commodities and for the importance of high ethical standards in the professions. In the second part of the book, Schlossberger examines the sources of ethical decision making, the major concepts in ethical theory (rights, autonomy, universality, utility, etc.), and the values appropriate to the engineering profession (such as safety, human progress, partnership with nature, etc.). In the third part, the author deals with specific ethical issues encountered in the engineering profession (honesty and professionalism, whistle blowing, employer-employee relations, issues in consulting engineering, etc.).
Some of the best features of this book are its appendices. Appendix I discusses two sample suggestions for professional engineers (the formation of an environmental and community issues advisory board and the employment of an ethical ombudsperson.) Appendix II is an excellent chapter-by-chapter summary of the key points of the book. There is also a list of cases with page numbers at the end of the book for quick reference. There is an index but no bibliography. However, the notes at the end of the book (organized by chapter) provide students and faculty alike with good references to other texts.
One of the features which makes this book primarily suited for students with no background in philosophy are its style and approach. When dealing with any of the central issues of his book, Schlossberger employs a clear, non-technical style that does not presuppose any prior knowledge either of philosophy or of engineering. He uses relevant examples and does not get drawn into discussions of what might seem to the student to be esoteric philosophical issues. Schlossberger also adopts an excellent pedagogical strategy: He uses a running metaphor that should be very appealing to engineering students. He proposes to provide them with with an "ethical tool kit" and to teach them how to make use of it when engaging in ethical decision making at any time during their professional life. Furthermore, the author is convincing to professional philosophers and also makes his point in a way that appeals to people for whom philosophy is not a way of life and who cannot be assumed to take for granted the higher value of the ethical life as opposed to the consumer life.
The book’s lack of technicality can, however, also pose certain problems. Though delving into technical details (either of philosophy or of engineering) can sometimes confuse and distract the reader from the main point, particularly when non-specialists are the primary audience, such details are sometimes very relevant to discussions of moral misconduct in specific cases. This lack of technical information is a detriment for the faculty member since it forces the faculty member to look for these details elsewhere in order to conduct an informed classroom discussion. For example, knowing the technical details of what caused disasters such as the Chernobyl and Three-Mile Island nuclear radiation leaks is important in order to evaluate the extent of human responsibility in these disasters and to assign moral responsibility to the appropriate individuals. It is surprising that Schlossberger does not discuss or refer to these two very important standard cases of moral failure. Furthermore, he fails to address such questions as "Why should we not treat human beings merely as means but also as ends?," "Why is autonomy important?," "Why should we care about promoting good consequences?," "Where do rights and duties come from?," etc.
Schlossberger’s book also has strengths and weakness with respect to its suitability for faculty members. The book does provide a good take-off point for class discussion. The cases chosen for this discussion and analysis are the standard cases of engineering ethics (BART, Dalkon Shield, the DC-10 case, the Challenger disaster, etc.). Some cases are "resolved" in order to show the students how one goes about using the "ethical tool kit." Other cases remain "unresolved" allowing the students and their teacher to engage in discussion and to work together to achieve a resolution to these cases.
The Ethical Engineer, however, also has a few weakness with respect to its suitability for faculty use. There is no discussion, as mentioned above, of the Chernobyl and Three-Mile Island nuclear reactor disasters. These cases are especially important in the context of discussions about the engineer’s responsibility for safety and about the importance of providing safe exits when products or structures are potentially dangerous. These two cases clearly illustrate, among other things, the potentially disastrous consequences of not providing safe exits. Considering the importance of these two standard cases, I am surprised and disappointed by the absence of a discussion of or reference to them. There is also no discussion of key issues within engineering ethics such as risk-assessment and risk-management, the assessment of safety and risk, the provision of safe exits, the issue of institutional authority vs. expert authority, and unionism vs. the "faithful agent" argument. Though the main issues in the field are covered, a professional philosopher who does not specialize in engineering ethics definitely needs more than the preparation which this book affords.
Because of these problems, this book does not suffice, in an engineering ethics course, as a source for the preparation of lectures and classroom discussions. I, therefore, cannot recommend it as an appropriate text for this kind of course. For such a purpose, I recommend Mike W. Martin and Roland Schinzinger’s Ethics in Engineering, a book to which Schlossberger himself makes extensive reference and which does not suffer from many of the problems found in Schlossberger’s own book. However, although I cannot recommend it as a text in an engineering ethics course, I do believe that The Ethical Engineer can be useful, outside of the context of such a course, as a good general introduction to engineering ethics since it is well-organized, clearly written, and free of unnecessary jargon.