Ethics for Engineers

Ethics for Engineers offers a comprehensive, up-to-date introduction to engineering ethics. Major ethical theories, professional codes of ethics, and case studies are included in a single volume that helps engineers better understand and address ethical issues in their profession. The presentation is balanced and fair, with numerous examples and about 100 review questions. All this makes the book suitable for courses designed to meet the ABET requirement for professional ethics, which is a mandatory requirement for all accredited engineering schools. (As of 2024, ABET accredits 4,674 engineering programs at 920 universities in 42 countries.) Ethics for Engineers 2e includes 46 case studies, both classic and contemporary ones, each followed by discussion questions. The ethical issues in all cases are clearly articulated and analyzed from numerous perspectives. Unlike most competing books, it includes detailed chapters on the major ethical theories and the methods of applied ethics, as well as a chapter on the history of engineering. The remaining chapters cover topics such as professional codes for engineers, whistleblowing, the problem of many hands, the ethics of risk and uncertainty, gifts, bribes, conflicts of interest, the ethics of cost benefit analysis, engineering and environmental ethics, privacy and computer ethics, ethical technology assessment, and the ethics of artifacts. With 18 chapters, Ethics for Engineers can be used for semester-long engineering ethics courses taught within philosophy departments or schools of engineering.