DO WE NEED A NEW KIND OF ETHICS? Some Remarks on Engineering Ethics

Abstract

The author deals with matters of ethics of our technological civilization and describes their main characteristics. As a kind of applied ethics engineering ethics has become of central importance because establishing sustainable growth requires new way of thinking: Related to high technology a new type of engineering responsibility is being born. This applied ethics is not brand-new. It induces an application of general traditional moral principles and a way to preserve them. Describing general characteristics of human beings the article argues for the necessity of law and ethics as basic forms of social control of human actions. Related to our technological civilization the author establishes the need for a new kind of ethics. Accepting the concept developed by Jonas the author outlines a future oriented responsibility ethics. The need for that is based on moral consequences of using modern technology, this great power. The need for engineering ethics is a result of a historical development: the engineering occupation has become profession. The article ends up with analyzing the IEEE code of ethics taken as model for others.