Learning to Reframe Problems Through Moral Sensitivity and Critical Thinking in Environmental Ethics for Engineers

Journal Article (2022)
Author(s)

Andrea Gammon (TU Delft - Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)

L. Marin (TU Delft - Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)

Research Group
Ethics & Philosophy of Technology
Copyright
© 2022 A.R. Gammon, L. Marin
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.5840/tej20221013120
More Info
expand_more
Publication Year
2022
Language
English
Copyright
© 2022 A.R. Gammon, L. Marin
Research Group
Ethics & Philosophy of Technology
Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Abstract

As attention to the pervasiveness and severity of environmental challenges grows, technical universities are responding to the need to include environmental topics in engineering curricula and to equip engineering students, without training in ethics, to understand and respond to the complex social and normative demands of these issues. But as compared to other areas of engineering ethics education, environmental ethics has received very little attention. This article aims to address this lack and raises the question: How should we teach environmental ethics to engineering students? We argue that one key aspect such teaching should address is the tendency of engineers towards technical framing of (social) problems. Drawing then on engineering ethics pedagogy we propose that the competencies of moral sensitivity and critical thinking can be developed to help engineering students with problem (re)framing. We conclude with an example from our teaching that operationalizes these competencies.

Files

2022_Gammon_Marin_Teaching_eth... (pdf)
(pdf | 0.382 Mb)
- Embargo expired in 01-07-2023
Unspecified