Chapter 1 - The Responsibilities of Engineers Flashcards
What is role responsibility?
the responsibility that is based on the role one has or plays in a certain situation
What is moral responsibility?
responsibility that is based on moral obligations, moral norms, or moral duties
What is professional responsibility?
responsibility that is based on one’s role as professional in as far it stays within the limits of what is morally allowed
What is passive responsibility?
backward looking responsibility, relevant after something undesirable occurred; specific forms are accountability, blameworthiness, and liability
What is accountability?
backward-looking responsibility in the sense of being held to account for, or justify one’s actions towards others
What is blameworthiness?
backward-looking responsibility in the sense of being a proper target of blame for one’s actions or the consequences of one’s actions; in order for someone to be blameworthy, usually the following conditions need to apply: wrong-ding, causal contribution, foreseeability, and freedom
What is active responsibility?
responsibility before something has happened referring to a duty or task to care for certain state-of-affairs or persons
What are the features of active responsibility?
Adequate perception of threatened violations of norms; Consideration of the consequences
Autonomy; Displaying conduct that is based on a verifiable and consistent code;Taking role obligations seriously
What are ideals?
strivings which are particularly motivating and inspiring for the person having them, and which aim at achieving an optimum or maximum
What are professional ideals?
Ideals that are closely allied to a profession or can only be aspired to by carrying out the profession
What is technological enthusiasm?
the ideal of wanting to develop new technological possibilities and taking up technological challenges
What is effectiveness?
the extent to which an established goal is achieved
What is efficiency?
the ratio between the goal achieved and the effort required
What is separatism?
the notion that scientists and engineers should apply the technical inputs, but appropriate management and political organs should make the value decisions
what is the tripartite model?
model that maintains that engineers can only be held responsible for the design of products and not for wider social consequences or concerns; in the tripartite model three separate segments are distinguished: politicians, engineers, and users
what is a hired gun?
someone who is willing to carry out any task or assignment from his employer without moral scruples
what is technocracy?
gov’t by experts
what is paternalism?
the making of moral decisions for others on the assumption that one knows better what is good for them than those other themselves
what is whistle blowing?
disclosure of certain abuses in a company by an employee in which he or she is employed, without the consent of his/her superiors, and in order to remedy these abuses and/or to warn the public about these abuses
what is an actor?
any person or group that can make a decision how to act and that can act on that decision
what is a user?
people who use a technology and who may formulate certain wishes or requirements for the functioning of a technology
what are regulators?
organizations who formulate rules or regulations that engineering products have to meet such as rulings concerning health and safety, but also rulings linked to relations between competitors
what are interests?
things actors strive for because they are beneficial or advantageous for them
what are stakeholders?
actors that have an interest in the development of a technology
what is a technology assessment?
systematic method for exploring future technology
what is a constructive technology assessment?
approach to technology assessment in which TA-like efforts are carried out parallel to the process of technological development and are fed back to the development and design process
