The intertwining of ethics and methodology in science and engineering: a virtue-ethical approach

Abstract

Ethics in engineering and science has become a hot topic not only on the agendas of academic institutions and funding agencies, but also among scientists and engineers themselves and the general public. Analysis of misconduct cases shows that fundamental issues concerning proper methodology as well as ethics are at stake. Traditionally, questions of methodology and ethics have been treated more or less as separate issues, or as being related but fundamentally different, while practitioners tend implicitly to see ethics as the underpinning of their methodology. I contend that methodological and ethical normativity are linked in a very fundamental way. I argue that the relationship between method and ethics deserves to be addressed more explicitly and can form the basis of a new approach towards ethical issues in science and engineering. In particular, a virtue-ethical based approach, defining the figure of the 'good practitioner', has many advantages. As an example, I consider the issue of the function and utility of ethical codes of conduct. Practice shows that these codes are seldom known to practitioners and, that when they are, practitioners have not internalised them. In other words, they do not match with notions of proper behaviour as experienced by scientists and engineers themselves. I argue that as long as the ethical codes are top-down regulations of an institution, rather than the 'living morality' of the virtuous community of scientific practice, they will remain of limited applicability.

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Implementing the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice—A Case Study

“…More robust ways of addressing the complex relationship between individual responsibility and institutional or collective responsibility can be found in the engineering ethics literature [14][15][16].…”

Vulnerabilities and responsibilities: dealing with monsters in computer security

“…The basic question we should be asking when dealing with ethical matters is for virtue ethics not: "What ought I do?," but rather: "What kind of person ought I be?" One of us has argued elsewhere (Consoli, 2008) that professional conduct issues might greatly benefit from a virtue-theoretical approach, in that it helps eliminate the mismatch between externally imposed rules and the living morality of the community of practitioners.…”

“…For this reason, we express the link between reactions to monsters and ethical attitudes in terms of virtue theory (Bowen (2000) for an example of an application in the context of computer science). In this approach, the focus lies not so much in a theoretical framework that can be used to analyze moral choices, but on attitudes of character (virtues and flaws), aiming at describing how to “live a good life” and be a “good human being.” The basic question we should be asking when dealing with ethical matters is for virtue ethics not: “What ought I do?,” but rather: “What kind of person ought I be?” One of us has argued elsewhere (Consoli, 2008) that professional conduct issues might greatly benefit from a virtue‐theoretical approach, in that it helps eliminate the mismatch between externally imposed rules and the living morality of the community of practitioners.…”