Unit-3
SELF-CONTROL
It is a virtue of maintaining personal discipline. It means a strong will and
motivation and avoidance of fear, hatred, and lack of efforts, temptation,
self-deception, and emotional response. It encompasses courage and good
judgment also. Self-respect promotes self-control.
SELF-INTEREST
Self-interest is being good and acceptable to oneself. It is pursuing what is
good for oneself. It is very ethical to possess self-interest. As per
utilitarian theory, this interest should provide for the respect of others
also. Duty ethics recognizes this aspect as duties to ourselves. Then only one
can help others. Right ethicist stresses our rights to pursue our own good.
Virtue ethics also accepts the importance of self-respect as link to social
practices.
In Ethical Egoism, the
self is conceived in a highly individualistic manner. It says that every one of
us should always and only promote one’s own interest. The ethical egoists do
not accept the wellbeing of the community or caring for others. However this
self-interest should not degenerate into egoism or selfishness, i.e.,
maximizing only own well in the pursuit of self-interest. The ethical egoists
hold that the society benefits to maximum when (a) the individuals pursue their
personal good and (b) the individual organizations pursue maximum profit in a
competitive enterprise. This is claimed to improve the economy of the country
as a whole, besides the individuals. In such pursuits, both individuals and
organizations should realize that independence is not the only important value.
We are also interdependent, as much as independent. Each of us is vulnerable in
the society. Self-respect includes recognition of our vulnerabilities and
interdependencies. Hence, it is compatible with caring for ourselves as well as
others. Self-interest is necessary initially to begin with. But it should be
one of the prime motives for action; the other motive is to show concern for
others, in the family as well as society. One’s self-interest should not harm
others. The principles of ‘Live and let (others) live’, and ‘reasonably fair
competition’ are recommended to professionals by the ethicists.
CUSTOMS
Ethical Pluralism: Various cultures in our pluralistic society lead to
tolerance for various customs, beliefs, and outlooks. Accordingly ethical
pluralism also exists. Although many moral attitudes appear to be reasonable,
the rational and morally concerned people cannot fully accept any one of the
moral perspectives. There are many varied moral values, which allow variation
in the understanding and application of values by the individuals or groups in
their everyday transactions. It means that even reasonable people will not
agree on all moral issues and professional ethics. Ethical Relativism:
According to this principle, actions are considered morally right when approved
by law or custom, and wrong when they violate the laws or customs. The deciding
factor is the law or the customs of the society. Should we accept the principle
of relativism or not? A few reasons to accept this are explained in the
following paragraphs:
1. Laws appear to be
objective ways for judging values. The laws and customs tend to be definite,
clear and real, but not always. Further moral reasons allow objective criticism
of laws, as being morally lacking. For example, the Apartheid laws of South
Africa violated the human rights of the native Africans. No legal protection
was available for native citizens for a long time. Now, of course, these laws
have been repealed.
2. Ethical relativism
assumes that the values are subjective at the cultural level. Moral standards
also vary from culture to culture. The objectivity is supported by the existing
laws of that society. The relative morality accepted, supports the virtue of
tolerance of differences among societies. This argument is also not fully acceptable. As per ethical relativism, the actions and laws of the Nazis and Hitler who vowed on Anti-Semitism and killed several million Jews would be accepted as right.
3. Moral rationalism or
moral contextualise: According to this, the moral judgments must be made in
relation to certain factors, which may vary from case to case. The morally
important factors for making judgments include the customs and laws. The virtue
ethicists hold that the practical wisdom should prevail upon assessing the
facts and in the judgment.
This principle was
accepted by the early anthropologists because they had a specific tendency to
over-stress the scope of moral difference between cultures. The human
sacrifices and cannibalism were accepted. But the modern anthropologists insist
that all cultures shall exhibit the virtue of social welfare and safety against
needless death or physical or mental harm. Moral differences were based on the
circumstances and facts and not on the difference in moral attitudes. For
example, the pharaohs buried the live attendants along with their dead king
with the belief that they would continue to serve the king in his afterlife.
RELIGION
Religions have played major roles in shaping moral views and moral values, over
geographical regions. Christianity has influenced the Western countries, Islam
in the Middle-East countries, Buddhism and Hinduism in Asia, and Confucianism
in China. Further, there is a strong psychological link between the moral and
religious beliefs of people following various religions and faiths. Religions
support moral responsibility. They have set high moral standards. Faith in the
religions provides trust and this trust inspires people to be moral. The
religions insist on tolerance and moral concern for others. Many professionals
who possess religious beliefs are motivated to be morally responsible.
Each religion lays
stress on certain high moral standards. For example, Hinduism holds
polytheistic (many gods) view, and virtues of devotion and surrender to high
order. Christianity believes in one deity and emphasizes on virtues of Love,
Faith, and Hope. Buddhism is non-theistic and focuses on compassion and Islam
on one deity and adherence of ishan (piety or pursuit of excellence) and
prayer. Judaism stresses the virtue of ‘tsedakah’ (righteousness). But many
religious sects have adopted poor moral standards, e.g., many religious sects
do not recognize equal rights for women. The right to worship is denied for
some people. People are killed in the name of or to promote religion. Thus,
conflicts exist between the ‘secular’ and religious people and between one
religion and another. Hence, religious views have to be morally scrutinized.
VALUING TIME
Time
is rare resource. Once it is spent, it is lost for ever. It cannot be either
stored or recovered. Hence, time is the most perishable and most valuable
resource too. This resource is continuously spent, whether any decision or
action is taken or not. The history of great reformers and innovators have stressed
the importance of time and valuing time. The proverbs, ‘Time and tide wait for
nobody’ and ‘Procrastination is the thief of time’ amply illustrate this point.
An anecdote to highlight the ‘value of time’ is as follows: To realize the
value of one year, ask the student who has failed in the examinations;. To
realize the value of one month, ask the mother who has delivered a premature
baby; to realize the value of one week, ask the editor of weekly; to realize
the value of one day, ask the daily-wage labourer; to realize now the value of
one hour, ask the lovers longing to meet; to realize the value of one minute,
ask a person who has missed the train; to realize the value of one second, ask
the person who has survived an accident; to realize the value one milli second,
ask the person who has won the bronze medal in Olympics; to realize the value
of one micro second, ask the NASA team of scientists; to realize the value of
one Nano-second, ask a Hardware engineer!; If you have still not realized the
value of time, wait; are you an Engineer?
COOPERATION
It is a team-spirit present with every
individual engaged in engineering. Co-operation is activity between two persons
or sectors that aims at integration of operations (synergy), while not
sacrificing the autonomy of either party. Further, working together ensures,
coherence, i.e., blending of different skills required, towards common goals.
Willingness to understand others, think and act together and putting this into
practice, is cooperation. Cooperation promotes collinearity, coherence (blend),
co-ordination (activities linked in sequence or priority) and
the synergy (maximizing the output, by reinforcement). The whole is more than
the sum of the individuals. It helps in minimizing the input resources (including
time) and maximizes the outputs, which include quantity, quality,
effectiveness, and efficiency.
According to
professional ethics, cooperation should exist or be developed, and maintained,
at several levels; between the employers and employees, between the superiors
and subordinates, among the colleagues, between the producers and the suppliers
(spare parts), and between the organisation and its customers.
The codes of ethics of various professional
societies insist on appropriate cooperation to nourish the industry. The
absence of cooperation leads to lack of communication, misinformation, void in
communication, and undue delay between supply, production, marketing, and
consumption. This is likely to demoralize and frustrate the employees, leading
to collapse of the industry over time and an economic loss to the society.
The impediments to successful cooperation are:
1. Clash of ego of individuals.
2. Lack of leadership
and motivation.
3. Conflicts of interests, based on region,
religion, language, and caste.
4. Ignorance and lack of interest. By careful
planning, motivation, leadership, fostering and rewarding team work,
professionalism and humanism beyond the ‘divides’, training on appreciation to
different cultures, mutual understanding ‘cooperation’ can be developed and
also sustained.
A
BALANCED OUTLOOK ON LAW
The ‘balanced outlook on law’ in
engineering practice stresses the necessity of laws and regulations and also
their limitations in directing and controlling the engineering practice. Laws
are necessary because, people are not fully responsible by themselves and
because of the competitive nature of the free enterprise, which does not
encourage moral initiatives. Laws are needed to provide a minimum level of
compliance.
The following codes are
typical examples of how they were enforced in the past:
Code
for Builders by Hammurabi:
Hammurabi the king of
Babylon in 1758 framed the following code for the builders: “If a builder has
built a house for a man and has not made his work sound and the house which he
has built has fallen down and caused the death of the householder, that builder
shall be put to death. If it causes the death of the householder’s son, they
shall put that builder’s son to death. If it causes the death of the
householder’s slave, he shall give slave for slave to the householder. If it
destroys property, he shall replace anything it has destroyed; and because he
has not made the house sound which he has built and it has fallen down, he
shall rebuild the house which has fallen down from his own property. If a
builder has built a house for a man and does not make his work perfect and the
wall bulges, that builder shall put that wall in sound condition at his own
cost”
This code was expected
to put in self-regulation seriously in those years.
Steam Boat Code in USA:
Whenever there is crisis we claim that
there ought to be law to control this. Whenever there is a fire accident in a
factory or fire cracker’s store house or boat capsize we make this claim, and
soon forget. Laws are meant to be interpreted for minimal compliance. On the
other hand, laws when amended or updated continuously, would be
counterproductive. Laws will always lag behind the technological development.
The regulatory or inspection agencies such as Environmental authority of India
can play a major role by framing rules and enforcing compliance.
In the early 19th
century, a law was passed in USA to provide for inspection of the safety of
boilers and engines in ships. It was amended many times and now the standards
formulated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers are followed.
Proper
Role of Laws: Good laws when enforced effectively
produce benefits. They establish minimal standards of professional conduct and
provide a motivation to people. Further they serve as moral support and defence
for the people who are willing to act ethically. Thus, it is concluded that:
1. The rules which
govern engineering practice should be construed as of responsible
experimentation rather than rules of a game. This makes the engineer
responsible for the safe conduct of the experiment.
2. Precise rules and
sanctions are suitable in case of ethical misconduct that involves the
violation of established engineering procedures, which are aimed at the safety
and the welfare of the public.
3. In situations where
the experimentation is large and time consuming, the rules must not try to
cover all possible outcomes, and they should not compel the engineers to follow
rigid courses of action.
4. The regulation
should be broad, but make engineers accountable for their decisions, and
5. Through their professional societies, the
engineers can facilitate framing the rules, amend wherever necessary, and
enforce them, but without giving-in for conflicts of interest.
