Engineering Ethics and Its Impact on Society Engineering Term Paper

Virtue Ethics in Engineering Practice
Student Name
Institutional Affiliation
Virtue Ethics in Engineering Practice
Virtue Ethics
Virtues refer to the strengths of character that emphasize the need for good character. The decisions and actions that are made in engineering practice depend on rational choice and deliberation (Sjursen, 2006). Firms emphasize this through being committed to ethics and ethics training. Engineers and engineering firm thus pass virtues to the community and other beneficiaries. Virtues also ensure that engineers and firms tailor their services to portray virtues and serve high quality services to customers.
Impact of Virtues on Society
Virtues refer to the desirable characters and habits in commitment, action, attitude, motive, and emotion, and virtue ethics emphasizes that these characteristics are more important than regulations and rules. It is important that engineers and engineering firms develop and possess certain virtues to help them in protecting the welfare of the society through the services that they offer to them (Verharen, Tharakan, Middendorf, Castro-Sitiriche, & Kadoda, 2013). Most engineering practice and professional ethics have been oriented to focus on preventive ethics to help in protecting the society from harmful impacts of modern technology and professional misconduct from the engineers. However, some of the aspects like the awareness of the social context of context, commitment to ensuring the public good is achieved, and respect for nature are impossible to account for in reference to negative rules (Withers, Parrish, Ellis, & Smith, 2016). It is in such cases where virtue ethics plays a crucial role since it promotes commitment, inner motivation, and practical judgment. In analyzing the impact of virtue ethics on society, it is important to explain Aristotle’s perspective towards virtue, happiness, and also drawing a clear distinction on the virtues of character and those of thought.
Application of Ethical Theories to Virtue Ethics
One of the ethical theories that guide virtue ethics is the Kantian theory. It is also regarded as a theory that is duty-based (Lana, 2020). It is an ethical and moral theory that serves three critical roles in a society. One of such is that it provides the methods that are used in the derivation of guidelines and moral rules that govern conduct in a society. The theory also provides a justification and criteria that is used in the evaluation of the moral value that characterizes the actions of human beings.
It is applicable in this case because Kantian established this theory so that he could provide a reason and duty-based morality in the society. He claimed that one has to be perfectly rational if they are to be considered ethical, and that natural behavior is the most ethical type of behavior in the society (Hearnshaw, 2020). Additionally, Kant claims that it is the moral obligation of every individual to ensure that they behave reasonably and observe morals. This is applicable to engineers in their practice as they should also observe ethics and ensure that they produce ethically viable products. Further, their behavior should not have any form of exception, loophole, or excuse for misconduct. According to t...