IDEAL INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING

NAME – ARIJIT SAHA

SEMESTER – 4TH YEAR – 2ND
ROLL – 27901624021
REGISTRATION NO – 242790120189
DEPARTMENT – ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING (EE)
SUBJECT – VALUES AND ETHICS IN PROFESSION
SUBJECT CODE – HM-EE 401
TOPIC – ENGINEERING ETHICS
FACULTY NAME – SHRAYASI BANERJEE
INTRODUCTION

Engineering is the process of developing an efficient mechanism which quickens and eases the work
using limited resources, with the help of technology. Ethics are the principles accepted by the society,
which also equate to the moral standards of human beings. An engineer with ethics, can help the
society in a better way.
Hence the study of Engineering ethics, where such ethics are implemented in engineering by the
engineers, is necessary for the good of the society. Engineering Ethics is the study of decisions,
policies and values that are morally desirable in engineering practice and research.
Morals:
The word “Morality” originates from the Latin word “mos” meaning “custom”. Morals are the
principles or habits with respect to right or wrong of one’s own conduct. They are not imposed by
anyone. Morals are what you think is good and bad personally.
Though morals are not imposed, they can be understood as the preaching of our inner self. Depending
on a few factors, our mind filters things as good or bad. These are the ideas that help frame our
personality so that we can distinguish between what is right and what is wrong.
A moral is the code of conduct that you develop over time and set for yourself to follow, just like
(i) Being good to everyone.
(ii) Speaking only the truth.
(iii) Going against what you know is wrong.
(iv) Having chastity.
(v) Avoid cheating.
(vi) Being a nice human being etc.

Morals are always defined by one’s own personality. Morals can be changed according to one’s beliefs
as they are completely dependent on one’s perception towards the ethical values.
Ethics:
The word “Ethics” originates from the Greek word “ethos” meaning “character”. Ethics are a set of
rules or principles that are generally considered as standards or good and bad or right and wrong,
which are usually imposed by an external group or a society or a profession or so.
Ethics can be understood as the rules of conduct proposed by a society or recognized with respect to a
particular class of human actions or a particular group or culture. Ethics are dependent on others
definition. They may or may not vary from context to context.
A person who strictly follows a set of ethical principles, may not have any moral at all while a person
who violates ethical principles at times, may maintain a high moral integrity. The ethical theories
include duty ethics, right ethics, virtue ethics and so on. A best example that can explain ethics is
utilitarianism.
Utilitarianism is the philosophy which explains that the happiness or pleasure of a greatest number of
people in the society is considered as the greatest good. According to this philosophy, an action is
morally right if its consequences leads to happiness of the people and wrong if the action leads to
their unhappiness. This theory moves beyond the scope of one’s own interests and takes into account
the interests of others.

Ethics in Engineering
Ethics are principles followed depending upon the moral responsibility that a person feels. The study
of related questions about moral ideals, character, policies and relationships of people and
organizations involved in technological activity, can be termed as Engineering ethics.
An engineer whether he works individually or works for a company, has to go through some ethical
issues, mostly under the conditions such as, conceptualization of a product, issues arising in design
and testing departments, or may be on the issues involving the manufacturing, sales and services.
Questions related to morality also arise during supervision and team works.
The ethical decisions and moral values of an engineer need to be considered because the decisions of
an engineer have an impact the products and services - how safe they are to use, the company and its
shareholders who believe in the goodwill of the company, the public and the society who trusts the
company regarding the benefits of the people, the law which cares about how legislation affects the
profession and industry, the job and his moral responsibilities and about how the environment gets
affected, etc.
Not only an engineer, but everyone has to follow a set of morals in order to keep away from getting
morally degraded. Our behavior should include the following −
 Respecting others and ourselves.
 Respecting the rights of others.
 Keeping promises.
 Avoiding unnecessary problems to others.
 Avoiding cheating and dishonesty.
 Showing gratitude towards others and encourage them to work.
Morality commands respect for persons, both others and ourselves. It involves being fair and just,
meeting obligations and respecting rights and not causing unnecessary harm by dishonesty and cruelty or
by hubris.
Types of Moral Issues
There are mainly two types of Moral issues that we mostly come across while keeping the ethical aspects
in mind to respond. They are −
Micro-ethics:
This approach stresses more on the problems that occur on a daily basis in the field of engineering and its
practice by engineers.
Macro-ethics:
This approach deals with social problems which are unknown. However, these problems may
unexpectedly face the heat at both regional and national levels.
Types of Inquiries
The issues can be resolved by following an investigation procedure, step by step in order to have a
clear understanding towards the issue. Here we have three different types of inquiries.
Judging the issues has to be followed by a systematic procedure to avoid any flaws. Engineering ethics
involves investigations into values, meanings and facts. Following are the different types of inquiries
made for this.
 Normative inquiries
 Conceptual inquiries
 Factual or descriptive inquiries

Normative Inquiries
Normative Inquiry refers to the description that describes what one ought to do under a specific
circumstance. This is the expected ideal response, which might differ from what one believes to be
right or wrong.
This list identifies and justifies the morally desirable nature for guiding individuals or groups. This
includes the responsibility of engineers to protect the public safety and how they should respond
under such dangerous practices. Normative inquiries also quote the laws and procedures that affect
the engineering practice on moral grounds. They refer to the thought process where the moral rights
are to be implemented in order to fulfill their professional obligations.
Conceptual Inquiries
Conceptual Inquiry refers to the description of the meaning of concepts, principles and issues related
to engineering ethics. The ethics that an engineer should possess to protect the safety, health and
welfare of the public, etc. are described under conceptual inquiries.
It describes what safety is and mentions the marginal issues of safety along with the precautions an
engineer should take to avoid risk. Conceptual inquiries mention the moral aspects of bribery and
how its effects, along with the professional ethics and professionalism.

Factual and Descriptive Inquiries

Factual Inquiry or the descriptive inquiry help to provide the facts for understanding and finding
solutions to the value based issues. The engineer has to conduct factual inquiries by using scientific
techniques.
This helps in providing the information regarding the business
realities such as engineering practice, history of engineering
profession, the effectiveness of professional societies, the
procedures to be adopted when assessing risks and psychological
profiles of engineers.
THANK YOU