Contracts for Engineers

14

Ethics for Individual Engineers

Introduction

In keeping with the theme of this book, this chapter emphasizes the contract nature of ethics. The parties to the contract, at the most basic level, are the individual and society at large that permits individual engineers, and by extension scientists and technical managers, to occupy a special position of trust in a free enterprise economy. The “consideration” given to the public for this special position is a duty to hold the public safety and health paramount in considering alternatives. The “contract theory” is explored in some more detail in Richard Bowen’s book (Bowen 2009). The modest goals of this chapter are to increase the sensitivity of engineers to ethical issues and to familiarize ...