Richard Skeirik, PE

Professional Codes: Ethics or Law?
a 2 hour Workshop

Engineers are held to codes created by our professional organizations and regulators. These codes seek to regulate conduct of members or maintain a high standard of integrity, skills, and practice in the profession of engineering. Mostly these exist under the title "Code of Ethics", with one exception called "Prohibited Acts".

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that focuses on right and wrong. Normative ethical systems always try to define in a general way how actions can be decided to be right or wrong. This decision is based on the nature of the act, or on the character of the outcome of the act. In contrast, law is a system of rules motivated by punishment for non-compliance, whose goal is to maintain social order. Our "codes" are a mish-mash of rules, value statements and vague general requirements. So are they really codes of ethics? Or they more like law? Or something else?

This workshop explores both philosophies: ethical philosophy and the philosophy of law. As with all very conceptual subjects, there are multiple perspectives on how to define right and wrong and what constitutes a systems of laws. Thus we must examine and select the perspectives that can usefully guide us in engineering questions. As we will see, only a teleological - outcome based - system of ethics is useful in deciding engineering questions that always involve many competing interests. And there are three separate but compatible views of law that can help us understand the codes that we are expected to honor.

With concepts of ethics and law that make sense for engineering, we can then take a close look at our codes and the authorities behind them. Looking at each statement within our codes, they fall roughly into three groups. First, some are expressions of virtue, in a manner of Aristotelian ethics. Second, many are rules that mandate or prohibit behavior. When we examine the authorities and procedures behind these rules, they have the requisite characteristics to form a system of law. Third, in a few cases the decision on right and wrong in some situations is delegated to the engineer. Then, focusing on the Delaware Code of Ethics for PEs, we'll explore how ethical and/or legal the rules are,  and how to comply with them.

At the end of workshop, attendees should be able to:

• Briefly describe the ethical norms of Pluralistic Utilitarianism and of Aristotelian Virtue.
• Explain how Aristotelian virtue affects behavior, and apply a Pluralistic Utilitarian approach to select the most ethically correct option in a situation of conflicting interests.
  
• List the characteristics that make a rule into an actionable law
  
• Explain how the DAPE Code of Ethics derives its force of law.
• Divide the strictures in a Code of Conduct or Ethics into
  • Assertions of virtue
  • Rules having the force of law
  • Delegation to you of ethical decision
  • Rules like law,but not actionable
• Identify strictures in a Code of Ethics that look like law, but lack characteristics to make them actionable law
• Identify work situations that fall within the “practice of professional engineering”.

Materials for this Cont Ed Workshop:

Workshop Title Page with contact info
DAPE Code of Ethics
Virtue Exercise
Pluralistic Utilitarian Exercise
Ethical Norms in Codes Exercise
Legal Moralism and Procedural Morality Exercise
Sovereign Command Exercise
Chunking Exercise
Actionability Exercise
Practice of Engineering Exercise

It's a long i like the sky - Sky´ rick