Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases (Philosophy)

This book helps engineering students carry over their natural analytical talents into a new area - moral deliberation. It shows them the importance of being analytical by stressing that many apparent moral disagreements are really disagreements over the facts or over the definitions of crucial terms, and that the locus of moral disagreement can only be discovered by analysis. Since engineers are interested in real-world problems, the text catches the attention of students in the field by focusing on cases that hit the front pages of newspapers (e.g., the Challenger disaster and the Ford Pinto gas tank) as well as those more typical of the sort they are likely to encounter in their own careers.

Charles E. Harris, Jr. received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University and currently teaches at Texas A and M University. He has authored several articles and books on ethics, including APPLYING MORAL THEORIES (Wadsworth, 2002).

Michael S. Pritchard is Willard A. Brown Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society at Western Michigan University. His areas of teaching include ethics (theoretical and practical); the philosophies of David Hume, Adam Smith, and Thomas Reid; and the philosophical thinking of children. His publications are in the areas of ethical theory, practical and professional ethics, communication ethics, and philosophy for children. He is co-editor (with Elaine Englehardt) of TEACHING ETHICS, the official journal of the Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum.