Engineers like to solve problems. But they tend to like to solve problems that have discrete solutions. As long as they know which formulae apply, the rest is a matter of calculation. When philosophers teach ethics, they often take an approach that seems antithetical to the engineer's methods of solving problems: ethicists teach in terms of "ill-defined problems." For the purposes of this essay, I will assume that it has been fairly well established that engineering students should take an ethics course as part of their curriculum. Having said that, should engineers suffer through an ethics course taught by a philosopher? Or should engineers teach engineering ethics? Should engineering students get a tailored version of the course offered by the philosophy department?

Volume Subject Area:
Mechanical Engineering Education
Topics:
Engineering ethics, Engineers, Ethics, Engineering students
1.
Aristotle,1999, Nicomachean Ethics, 2nd ed., trans. by Terence Irwin, Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis, pp. 89–92, p. 2.
2.
Jonsen, A. R. and Toulmin, S., 1988, The Abuse of Casuistry: A History of Moral Reasoning, University of California Press, pp. 140-172, 257.
3.
Miller, R. B., 1996, Casuistry and Modern Ethics: a Poetics of Practical Reasoning, University of Chicago Press, p. 5.
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