Toward a More Caring Code of Engineering Ethics

Despite recent scholarly work that emphasizes the importance of the ethic of care in engineering practice, care ethics are not reflected in most engineering codes of ethics. Rather, the canons of these codes more often reflect traditional “universal” moral principles. Since despite their limitations, the codes of ethics are important aspirational and normative value statements for the profession—and are frequently used to teach engineering ethics—this paper proposes that the codes should include canons that reflect the ethic of care. The paper first summarizes the theory of care ethics as developed by Carol Gilligan and Nel Noddings and addresses critiques of care ethics as they relate to engineering. Next, it applies care virtues to engineering to suggest that care ethics are appropriate values for engineering practice. It proposes that care ethics could be incorporated in canons that are based on virtue ethics and suggests revisions and additions to the NSPE code of ethics that would reflect care ethics. The paper concludes by suggesting that a stronger integration of care ethics into the codes of ethics may foster a more widespread inclusion of care ethics in engineering ethics instruction.