What Do We Teach to Engineering Students: Embedded Ethics, Morality, and Politics

Area of Science:

• Engineering Education
• Ethics in STEM
• Philosophy of Technology

Background:

• Growing demand for ethics modules in engineering curricula.
• Existing 'embedded' programs suffer from underspecified learning goals and conflation of individual conduct vs. societal ethics.
• Need for a clearer structure to guide ethics instruction in engineering.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a tripartite framework for analyzing and structuring ethics modules in engineering education.
• To enhance the clarity and comprehensiveness of ethics training for engineering students.
• To differentiate between ethical learning goals, the moral conduct of engineers, and societal ethical implications.

Main Methods:

• Analytical decomposition of ethics modules into three distinct dimensions: ethical, moral, and political.
• Framework development to provide analytic clarity for instructors.
• Guidance for students to reason about abstract moral issues and contextualize solutions.

Main Results:

• The proposed tripartite framework offers analytic clarity, enabling instructors to distinguish between moral and political dimensions of ethical dilemmas.
• It facilitates the application of relevant philosophical tools and resources.
• Provides a comprehensive approach to ethical training, covering both abstract reasoning and social contextualization.

Conclusions:

• The tripartite framework enhances the structure and effectiveness of ethics modules in engineering education.
• It supports the development of engineers capable of addressing complex ethical challenges at both individual and societal levels.
• This approach promotes clearer learning objectives and more targeted pedagogical strategies in engineering ethics.