Ethics, Technology, and Engineering

Praise for the first edition

“Ethics, Technology, and Engineering: An Introduction is a genuine contribution to an already substantial literature on ethics in the techno-lifeworld. Arising from within a world where humans live more intensely integrated with and thoughtfully reliant on technology than anywhere else on the planet, this volume constitutes a new realization of historico-philosophical promise.”
—Carl Mitcham, Colorado School of Mines

“Ethics, Technology, and Engineering takes undergraduate education in engineering ethics to a new level. It shows why engineers need to reflect seriously on ethics, and provides them with the tools they need to do so. This is exactly what we need to teach ethics to engineers.”
—Sven Ove Hansson, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden

“Van de Poel and Royakkers have written a most comprehensive, up-to-date, and readable text. Their discussion of the different grounds for, and ways of framing, moral problems likely to be encountered in engineering covers all the bases; their illustrative cases, drawn in the main from contemporary practice, are treated circumspectly and will no doubt provoke the kind of open discussion of engineering decision-making they intend. It is the best treatment of this subject geared toward the undergraduate I have encountered.”
—Louis L. Bucciarelli, MIT

In Ethics, Technology, and Engineering: An Introduction, two distinguished researchers deliver an illuminating and incisive discussion at the intersection of morality, engi neering, and technology. The book explores many of the most seemingly intractable ethical questions that arise from the practice of engineering and the creation and deployment of novel technologies and demonstrates the skills necessary to effectively reason through those questions.

The authors introduce the “ethical cycle,” a unique and systematic approach to grappling with ethical problems involving engineering and technology. They offer numerous real-world case studies from the US, Europe, and around the world to shed light on the work of professional engineers working in a variety of industries. They also present a comprehensive overview of ethical frameworks commonly employed by engineers, from utilitarianism to deontological ethics, virtue ethics, Ubuntu, and Confucianism.

An essential and insightful guide to navigating the challenging ethical questions posed by the discipline of engineering and by the development of new and exciting—but ethically fraught—technologies, this new edition of Ethics, Technology, and Engineering will earn a place in the libraries of engineers, technologists, entrepreneurs, founders, businesspeople, legislators, academics, and regulators.