How Engineers Can Care from a Distance

How Engineers Can Care from a Distance: Promoting Moral Sensitivity in Engineering Ethics Education

van Grunsven, J.B. (TU Delft Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)
Marin, L. (TU Delft Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)
Stone, T.W. (TU Delft Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)
Doorn, N. (TU Delft Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)
Roeser, S. (TU Delft Values Technology and Innovation)

Miller, Glenn (editor)
Mateus Jerónimo, Helena (editor)
Zhu, Qin (editor)

Values Technology and Innovation

2023

Moral (or ethical) sensitivity is widely viewed as a foundational learning goal in engineering ethics education. We have argued in this paper is that this view of moral sensitivity cannot be readily transported from the nursing context to the engineering context on the basis of a care-analogy. The particularized care characteristic of the nursing context is decisively different from the generalized and universalized forms of care characteristic of the engineering context. Through a focus on care and maintenance, the engineering student’s moral sensitivity can be refined, opening up a perceptual awakening and affectivity towards the complex nature of the engineer’s Other. This awakening is in part promoted through an understanding of the ideology of neutrality as a moment in the history engineering. Becoming aware of this ideology as an ideology can then be seen as an activity of dividing loyalties that allows for a reflexive and critical view of the biases and presuppositions inherited within the world of engineering. This process of deepening the engineering student’s moral sensitivity is perhaps as much a process of the student becoming aware of her professional world, how it shapes her understanding of herself, and what it means to be a good engineer.

Philosophy of engineering
Engineering education
philosophy of technology
Moral sensitivity

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0a020d5d-1b38-4102-ab14-de2f4efd414d

Rowman & Littlefield

2023-09-01

978-1-5381-7650-4

Thinking through Science and Technology: Philosophy, Religion, and Politics in an Engineered World

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Institutional Repository

book chapter

© 2023 J.B. van Grunsven, L. Marin, T.W. Stone, N. Doorn, S. Roeser