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The End-Use Problem in Engineering Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2022

C. Thomas Rogers
C. Thomas Rogers*
Affiliation:
Montana Tech
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Extract

Almost everyone agrees that new technologies frequently have profound effects upon how we live as individuals, as groups, and as societies. As one author puts it: “One of the most persistent themes in the social sciences, history, and the humanities is the impact of technology and technological change on all aspects of social life.” (Merrill 1968, p. 576). Technology has come to be a central concern in much public debate on such issues as nuclear power, industrial and automobile pollution, transportation systems, energy, and military hardware.

Always bearing in mind Francis Bacon's claim that knowledge is power, we develop and employ technology for a variety of economic and social reasons. Moreover, technology is “people-embodied”, engineers being the principal agents of technological innovation and, thus, social change.

Type
Part VIII. Philosophy, Engineering and Society
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1980 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1980 , 1980 , pp. 464 - 480
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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Footnotes

1

I would like to acknowledge the support of Robert Baum and the (N.E.H.) National Project on Philosophy and Engineering Ethics (N.P.P.E.E.) in helping me to carry out this work. In particular, I want to thank my team partners Thomas Riley and Frank Manley; Carol Ann Smith, who lead me to the Baum and Ladenson work; and the rest of our colleagues with NP2E2, or “NPEEP” as we were often known, especially Jerry Gravender and Michael Hodges who, along with Carol and myself, contributed to the PSA 1980 Philpspphy, Engineering, and Society Symposium in Toronto. I would also like to thank Stephen H. Unger for his encouragement and Robert Taylor and Carol Peterson Flynn for their help.

References

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