Constructing a role ethics approach to engineering ethics education

ABSTRACT This paper is concerned with the gap between the ideology of ‘autonomous individualism’ deeply embedded in Western-centric engineering ethics education and the social and relational nature of engineering practice. The so-called ‘individualistic approach’ to engineering ethics often treats students as fully rational and autonomous individual decision-makers. Such an approach mainly emphasizes teaching students moral reasoning skills, including the skills of applying dominant Western ethical theories (mainly deontology and consequentialism) into hypothetical cases. What might be overlooked or could be further emphasized in dominant approaches to engineering ethics education is what philosophers call the ‘role ethics’ of engineers. The role ethics approach to engineering ethics focuses on the the moral obligations of engineers that are derived from the specific roles they assume and the relationships they have developed with others in communal contexts. This paper aims to construct a role-based approach to teaching professional ethics to engineering students. It mainly draws on role ethics theories from the Confucian philosophical tradition. It first provides a short introduction to the fundamentals of Confucian role ethics from a comparative perspective. It then discusses what a role-based approach to engineering ethics might entail. Finally, this paper briefly explores how the insights from Confucian role ethics can inform future engineering ethics education.