Ethics,society, and technology: A Confucian role ethics perspective

This essay provides a very brief overview of Confucian ethics that focuses on the role-based morality. It compares Confucian ethics with two dominant schools of thought in Western ethics deontology and consequentialism. This essay then discusses how Confucian ethics provides a unique way to think about social and political issues such as how the political leaders are selected and evaluated, the ethical justification of political legitimacy, the prioritization of economic, social, and cultural rights over other rights, and moral egalitarianism. Finally, this essay explores the ways in which Confucian ethics serves as a useful intellectual resource for examining the issues arising from the ethical assessment of (emerging) technologies and the professional formation of engineers. The Appendix of this essay includes some teaching resources that instructors can employ to teach students about ethics, society, and technology from a Confucian role ethics perspective.     

Engineering Ethical Curricula: Assessment and Comparison of Two Approaches

The paper assesses two approaches for delivery of engineering ethics: a full semester ethics course and an engineering course that includes an ethics module. The Defining Issues Test was used to compare the improvement of a student's moral reasoning ability in each class as compared to a control class. Our findings were that the module approach used did not provide any improvement in moral reasoning. In addition, although the ethics course showed improvement when compared to the module, it was not significantly different from the control class. We also found that there was little distinction between males and females and no distinction by age, although education level did have an impact. The results suggest that to improve a student's moral reasoning and sensitivity to ethical issues, engineering ethics must be integrative, delivered at multiple points in the curriculum, and incorporate specific discipline context.     

Instructor perceptions of engineering ethics education at Chinese engineering universities: A cross-cultural approach

During the past decade, governmental agencies, universities and programs, policymakers, and educators in China have been striving for reforming and “globalizing” the engineering ethics curriculum. Chinese scholars have proposed strategies for improving the teaching effectiveness of engineering ethics that integrate “global forms” derived from the “American-style engineering ethics” into the Chinese context. Nevertheless, limited empirical research is available that examines the alignment of these strategies and the cultures of engineering education in China (e.g., instructor perceptions of engineering ethics education). We argue that understanding how Chinese instructors perceive engineering ethics instruction is critical for designing instructional strategies sensitive to the Chinese sociocultural context. In this study, we reviewed the literature on teaching engineering ethics (primarily after the 2000s) and teased out a set of most “contested” questions concerning American educators since the emergence of engineering ethics education as an academic discipline. By using these questions as a guideline, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 Chinese engineering ethics instructors trained in three different fields: STS and philosophy of science and technology, engineering, and Marxist studies and ethical theories. This paper also briefly discussed how the ways Chinese instructors perceived engineering ethics education are connected to and distinct from the views held by American educators discussed in the literature review section. This paper is expected to shed light on the cultures of engineering ethics education in China and provide insights into formulating effective policies and teaching strategies sensitive to the Chinese context.     

现代设计的伦理道德的演化和意涵研究

设计受伦理道德观念的影响,设计创作需要关注自然和社会的道德取向。在研究设计伦理道德演化过程的基础上,得出现代设计诉求的伦理道德意涵,并从设计的功能道德、时代道德和社会价值等方面阐述现代设计诉求的伦理道德的特征。     

基于设计伦理理念的公共服务设施探析

目的从设计伦理学的角度对公共服务设施设计艺术进行研究。方法以设计伦理为基础,针对当前市场经济主导下的社会发展中出现的、在公共服务设施设计中存在的伦理问题,展开产品设计与伦理观念的矛盾研究,运用一定的伦理学观念与发展规律,研究公共服务设施设计艺术与伦理之间的辩证关系,并通过伦理标尺和道德砝码来衡量和评价公共服务设施的设计成果。结论从伦理学角度来对公共服务设施设计艺术进行重新审视,用伦理道德来规范和引导人的行为,将伦理问题作为设计的限制因素来制约影响设计艺术,从而引导产品设计者,肩负起社会责任,遵循伦理道德标准,站在以人为本的立场,树立人性化设计理念,使公共服务设施的产品设计达到人与自然、环境、资源利用的和谐统一。     

开展工程伦理学研究 增强工程师责任意识

工程伦理学是20世纪后期兴起的一门交叉学科。文章首先分析了把技术开发与技术使用分开，从而回避工程师责任的做法，进而剖析了认为工程是科学的应用和工程是实现社会价值的简单工具等观点，指出工程与伦理密切相关，工程师应当增强责任意识。     

Ethical Validation: Reframing Research Ethics in Engineering Education Research To Improve Research Quality

Background

Prior to undertaking studies involving human subjects, engineering education researchers are required to consider the ethical implications of their work by obtaining approval from an ethical review board.

Purpose/Hypothesis

Recent research suggests that some unintended consequences of this procedure are that it externalizes and inflexibly formalizes ethical considerations, and limits researchers’ readiness to systematically identify and consider ethical questions that arise while conducting research.

Design/Method

We used a collaborative inquiry approach to examine such ethically important moments that emerged in two of our interpretive research projects. We drew on Walther, Sochacka, and Kellam's framework for interpretive research quality as the departure point for our shared sense‐making process.

Results

Our explorations revealed two insights that connect research ethics to research quality in novel ways. First, we found that the quality of our work improved when we critically explored the intersections between our motivations and intentions for investigating particular research topics and broader cultural agendas and assumptions. Second, we found that when we actively sought to do justice to the participants, co‐investigators, and readers of our research, we were afforded with opportunities to increase the quality of our work, in sometimes quite unexpected ways.

Conclusions

We synthesized the findings from our collaborative inquiry into a process‐oriented model for ethical validation, which we propose as a sixth construct to our prior five‐construct framework for interpretive research quality.     

Ethics Teaching in Undergraduate Engineering Education

This paper asks how undergraduate engineering education supports students' ethical development, broadly defined, in a diverse sample of U.S. engineering schools and offers an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of those efforts. The paper draws on observational case studies that were based on site visits to undergraduate mechanical and electrical engineering programs at seven universities or engineering schools in the U.S. It begins by proposing professional codes of ethics in engineering as a useful framework for thinking about the goals for student learning in the area of ethics and professional responsibility. The paper then discusses how and to what degree these goals are being addressed in the case study schools, with additional context provided through reference to published research in the field. The paper concludes with recommendations for strengthening the teaching of engineering ethics and professional responsibility.     

Moral adherence enhancement and the case of long-distance space missions

The possibility of employing human enhancement interventions to aid in future space missions has been gaining attention lately. These possibilities have included one of the more controversial kinds of enhancements: biomedical moral enhancement. However, the discussion has thus far remained on a rather abstract level. In this paper we further this conversation by looking more closely at what type of interventions with what sort of effects we should expect when we are talking about biomedical moral enhancements. We suggest that a more grounded way to picture moral enhancement, at least in the near term, is to envision a form of cognitive enhancement that also provides some moral benefits by heightening the enhanced person's capability for acting according to their own subjective moral code. While this concept of moral adherence enhancement also has relevance for the moral enhancement discussion more widely, in this paper we apply it specifically in the context of space missions. We argue that there are weighty reasons to consider making biomedical enhancements of the proposed kind a mandatory feature of early-phase long-distance space travel because these missions are high-stakes in nature and take place in an environment where the enhancement could be seen as conferring important advantages while negating many of the traditional arguments weighed against it.     

人工智能产品设计伦理探究

目的 分析当今人工智能产品设计伦理.方法 运用文献法和案例分析方法从设计的伦理出发,分析当代设计中与人工关智能产品的设计伦理问题.从弱人工智能产品和强人工智能产品两个层面来探究产生的影响,从设计师和设计伦理准则以及人工智能产品三者的协同关系做出思考,同时给出相关问题的具体建议.结论 人工智能产品无法替代设计师的全部功能,设计师应该参与人工智能产品设计伦理,设法赋予其对人类友善的动机,使其具备特定的道德品质,做出合乎道德的行为.     

Broadening the lens for the governance of emerging technologies: Care ethics and agricultural biotechnology

In this paper we argue that insights from feminist perspectives, particularly in the form of an ethics of care, have a number of advantages when used as a lens through which to consider questions relevant to the governance of emerging technologies. We highlight how an emphasis on central themes of importance in feminist theory and care ethics such as relationality, contextuality, dependence, power, affect, and narrative can shine a light on a number of salient issues that are typically missed by the dominant and largely consequentialist risk assessment frame. We argue that the care ethics lens is a better fit when technologies are understood not simply as devices designed to create a certain end experience for a user but as transformative systems that smuggle in numerous social and political interests. The advantages of these care ethics themes for emerging technologies are illustrated through a detailed consideration of agricultural biotechnology. We show how the feminist care ethics lens might have anticipated the very questions that have proved themselves to be the sticking points for this technology. We therefore suggest that applying a care ethics lens can significantly broaden the frame of appraisal processes used for the governance of emerging technologies and usefully grant legitimacy to questions and concerns that are prominent in public discourse but typically left out of practices of risk assessment.     

Integrating Ethics & Engineering: A Graduate Option in Systems Engineering,Ethics, and Technology Studies

This paper describes an engineering graduate option in Systems Engineering designed to overcome some of the effects of specialization and compartmentalization by building a link between technical and ethical training. Students in this option produce case studies that emphasize ethical issues in the design process. The goal of the program is to turn out ethical professionals who are able to reflect on the moral implications of technology. The proposed approach uses realistic or real‐hypothetical hybrid case studies as a type of vicarious mentoring, and, when supplemented with readings in ethical theory and codes, may serve as a starting point for a deeper understanding of behavioral dilemmas. The developers of this approach are a multi‐disciplinary team from the Engineering School and the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. The paper describes how the graduate option is structured and provides data on student outcomes.     

Assessment of an Engineering Ethics Video: Incident at Morales

A new engineering ethics video, Incident at Morales, was assessed with two different instruments: the standard Defining Issues Test and a short ad hoc survey. According to pre‐tests and post‐tests with the Defining Issues Test, viewers of the video increased the sophistication of their moral reasoning skills. According to the survey, viewers changed their opinions about the most important responsibilities of engineers and about meeting environmental regulations when working overseas. From these results, it appears that the video is an effective approach to teach engineering ethics.     

Engaging and Supporting Problem Solving in Engineering Ethics

Learning to solve ethical problems is essential to the education of all engineers. Engineering ethics problems are complex and ill structured with multiple perspectives and interpretations to address in their solution. In two experiments, we examined alternative strategies for engaging ethical problem solving. In Experiment 1, students studied two versions of an online learning environment consisting of everyday ethics problems. Students using question hypertext links to navigate applied more perspectives and canons and wrote stronger overall solutions to ethics problems than those using embedded hypertext links. In Experiment 2, students engaged in a more generative task, evaluating alternative arguments for solutions to the cases or generating and supporting their own solutions. Both groups better supported their solutions and generated more counterclaims than control students. These studies focused on solving realistic case‐based ethics problems as an effective method for addressing ABET's ethics criteria.     

设计伦理视域下的共享快递包装设计

目的 以日益增长的环境污染和资源浪费问题为切入点,从设计伦理学的角度对共享快递包装进行设计研究。方法 分析共享快递包装现阶段所存在的伦理问题,通过实地调研和用户访谈,探讨用户对共享快递包装的设计诉求,深入研究寄取件操作难、部分弱势群体出行不便、货品过重不易运输、包装物回收难度大等快递包装使用过程中所出现的一系列问题,尝试提出以快递包装箱为载体,实现共享快递租赁服务的系统解决方案。结论 新型共享包装设计从材料选择、功能设计、结构设计再到回收体系,都应遵循生态性、共享性、人性化的设计伦理原则,能够有效解决包装成本高、回收困难、资源浪费、服务体系不健全等问题。并且依靠互联网、大数据等技术搭建快递共享平台,提出伦理价值实现路径,保证共享快递包装系统的精准高效施行。     

空调制冷铜管“铜铝渗蚀”开裂失效分析

空调换热器制冷铜管在安装数月后出现开裂泄漏制冷剂现象。对开裂的管材进行化学成分、力学性能、断口及金相检验分析。结果表明,Al-Cu渗蚀导致铜管底壁变薄,装配、运转应力导致开裂。追踪生产过程,发现火焰自动钎焊工艺中存在的Al-Cu渗蚀现象为铜管底壁变薄主要原因,据此提出相应的有效解决方案。     

伦理学视域下设计关怀贫困群体的终极目标

目的廓清设计关怀贫困群体的终极目标,并对它进行伦理学方面的阐析,以便在设计伦理的范畴为相关实践活动提出道德要求,提供理论参考与指导,旨在保障相关活动能沿着符合优良道德价值的方向发展。方法借助伦理学的研究方法,阐释相关活动终极目标的道德内涵,考察民生幸福的实质,同时基于贫困主体与设计行为主体的不同身份,从消费性幸福与创造性幸福以及利己幸福与利他幸福的角度来解析终极目标的性质,并从内在善、手段善和至善的角度来剖释不同层面的道德境界。结论设计关怀贫困群体最终是要借助设计的力量为其谋求和创造幸福生活,不仅应关注其物质幸福,而且应聚焦于社会幸福与精神幸福。在此基础上兼顾其消费性幸福与创造性幸福的两个不同阶段,为他们带来善的事与物,并最终使相关活动升华到至善的境界。     

Taming monsters: The cultural domestication of new technology

Central to public discomfort about new technologies is the notion that they are unnatural. Experts often suppose that better knowledge of technology and risks would help overcome public aversion. This assumption turns out to be fairly fruitless, often even increasing social polarization. The pattern of diverging risk assessments about technology might be improved by a better understanding of the moral gut feelings at stake. However, current technology ethics does not seem to be equipped for elaborating theories to explain public discomfort. Either public fear is not taken seriously, or ethical–theoretical rationalizations of moral intuitions lead to unsatisfactory, naturalist constructions, such as the intrinsic value of nature.For a better understanding of current risk controversies, a detour is made to the cultural anthropology of Mary Douglas on pre-modern ideas regarding danger. This offers some clarifying insights into modern perceptions of technological risks. Departing from anthropological observations, a so-called monster theory is sketched, which gives an explanation for the fascination with and aversion towards new technology, leaving aside ‘naturalist’ and ‘nature-skeptic’ explanations of technology ethics. Monster theory offers a point of departure for a new, pragmatic approach to controversies about new technology, the approach being named a pragmatist monster-ethics. It tells us we have to reflect on and shift cultural categories as well as to adapt technologies in order to domesticate our technological ‘monsters’.