Ethics T/F: Codes of Conduct & Ethical Cycle

True or false: The three BART engineers were dismissed in March 1972.

TRUE - They were fired in March 1972 after their safety concerns became public.

True or false: The BART engineers first raised their safety doubts through internal memos to their managers, starting in 1969.

TRUE - They sent internal memos from 1969; managers replied "Don't make trouble."

True or false: When the BART engineers bypassed their managers, they went straight to the Contra Costa Times.

FALSE - They went to members of the board of directors. The story appeared in the Contra Costa Times two days later, exposing them.

True or false: The IEEE supported the BART engineers by sending an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") letter.

TRUE - IEEE got involved and sent an amicus curiae letter to the courts.

True or false: The BART engineers won a court judgment of $250,000 each.

FALSE - They accepted an out-of-court settlement of $25,000 per person.

True or false: About three weeks after BART began carrying passengers, an accident injured several passengers.

TRUE - This is part of the case: their safety concerns turned out to be justified.

True or false: Professional codes are formulated by companies and tend to be mandatory and disciplinary.

FALSE - Professional codes come from professional associations and tend to be advisory. Corporate codes come from companies and tend to be disciplinary and mandatory.

True or false: Corporate codes tend to be disciplinary and mandatory.

TRUE - Corporate codes aim to achieve and maintain guidelines for employees, often with training on moral dilemmas.

True or false: An aspirational code is meant to help individuals exercise moral judgment in concrete situations.

FALSE - That describes an advisory code. An aspirational code expresses the moral values of a profession or company.

True or false: A disciplinary code is intended to make the behavior of all professionals or employees meet certain values and norms.

TRUE - That is the definition of a disciplinary code.

True or false: One characteristic of a profession is a monopoly on carrying out the occupation.

TRUE - Not everybody can call themselves an engineer or do engineering work.

True or false: Whether professional work is done competently can be judged by any member of the public.

FALSE - Only professionals in that field have the knowledge and skills to apply the right standards of judgment.

True or false: After World War II, professional codes began addressing social issues arising from engineering, such as the atomic bomb.

TRUE - Early codes were mostly etiquette; post-WWII codes turned to social and moral issues of technology.

True or false: The July 1945 petition signed by 69 Manhattan Project scientists reached President Truman before Hiroshima was bombed.

FALSE - The petition never reached Truman.

True or false: The scientists' petition argued that atomic attacks on Japan could not be justified unless the postwar terms were made public and Japan had a chance to surrender.

TRUE - That was the core of the petition.

True or false: NSPE and ASME codes state that engineers should hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public.

TRUE - This line is central to post-WWII professional codes.

True or false: FEANI was created by British and American engineers.

FALSE - FEANI (European Federation of National Engineering Associations) was created by German and French engineers.

True or false: Integrity is defined as telling what one has good reasons to believe is true and disclosing all relevant information.

FALSE - That is honesty. Integrity is living by one's moral values, norms and commitments.

True or false: Professional codes relate to three domains: integrity/honesty/competence, obligations to employers and clients, and responsibility to the public.

TRUE - These are the three domains listed in the notes.

True or false: If a conflict of interest is unavoidable, it should be disclosed to the interested parties.

TRUE - Disclosure is the rule when a conflict of interest can't be avoided.

True or false: Under the NSPE code, engineers may disclose a former client's confidential business information once the contract has ended.

FALSE - NSPE says engineers shall not disclose, without consent, confidential information of any present or former client or employer.

True or false: Milton Friedman held that companies have responsibilities to all stakeholders, society and the environment.

FALSE - Friedman said companies are responsible only to shareholders, within the law.

True or false: One of Friedman's arguments is that corporations are not democratically elected.

TRUE - His two arguments: CSR spending is really shareholders' money, and corporations are not democratically elected.

True or false: The "ethics pays" objection says corporate responsibility can have a positive effect on the bottom line.

TRUE - This is one of the two objections to Friedman's view.

True or false: One objection to Friedman is that laws often lag behind technological advances.

TRUE - Laws are not always adequate, and companies may understand new technology's moral issues better than officials.

True or false: All stakeholders are shareholders, but not all shareholders are stakeholders.

FALSE - It's the reverse: all shareholders are stakeholders, but not all stakeholders are shareholders.

True or false: A mission statement is a formal summary of the aims and values of a company, organization or individual.

TRUE - This is the first element of a corporate code (the Microsoft example).

True or false: Window-dressing means presenting a favorable impression that is not based on the actual facts.

TRUE - It is mere appearance rather than substance, a risk when codes are written out of self-interest.

True or false: Critical loyalty means placing the employer's interests, as the employer defines them, above all other considerations.

FALSE - That is uncritical loyalty. Critical loyalty gives due regard to the employer's interests within the limits of personal and professional ethics.

True or false: According to Kant, following a code out of fear of sanctions is a heteronomous motive, while moral behavior requires autonomy.

TRUE - This is one of the arguments that ethics can't be fully codified.

True or false: One argument against codifying ethics is that sound moral judgment must consider the particular situation, because context matters.

TRUE - Codes presuppose universal rules, but context matters.

True or false: Enforcement is only relevant in the case of disciplinary codes.

TRUE - Stated directly in the notes.

True or false: Professional codes have legal status, so violating one can lead to legal penalties.

FALSE - Professional codes have no legal status. The most severe consequence is loss of membership.

True or false: Corporate codes offer more possibilities for enforcement than professional codes.

TRUE - Companies influence engineers' daily practice far more than professional associations do.

True or false: External auditing means an outside organization assesses a company against its code of conduct.

TRUE - It boosts credibility and may be required for a hallmark (certification).

True or false: Because freedom of speech is legally protected, employees may freely reveal trade secrets.

FALSE - Free speech doesn't mean complete freedom; you can't tell trade secrets without sufficient justification.

True or false: In Gilbane Gold, the regulation limits the absolute amount of lead and arsenic Z-Corp may discharge.

FALSE - The regulation only refers to concentrations, so diluting the waste water stays within limits. That is the loophole.

True or false: In Gilbane Gold, Z-Corp's new contract with a Japanese firm will increase production by 500 percent.

TRUE - This raises the total discharge of lead and arsenic.

True or false: Well-structured problems usually have clear goals, fixed alternatives and at most one correct answer.

TRUE - Arithmetic is the example given.

True or false: An ill-structured problem has a definitive formulation from the start.

FALSE - It has no definitive formulation and can only be defined during the process of solving it.

True or false: A key lesson from design is that practical problem solving includes finding new solutions, not only analyzing and defending one.

TRUE - This is the most important lesson the notes draw from designing.

True or false: The phases of the ethical cycle are: moral problem statement, problem analysis, options for action, ethical evaluation, reflection.

TRUE - Followed by conclusion and enactment.

True or false: A moral problem is one in which two or more positive moral values or norms cannot be fully realized at the same time.

TRUE - That is the definition.

True or false: Cooley agrees that in a true moral dilemma, every available option is morally wrong.

FALSE - Cooley disagrees: morality always gives at least one permissible action, though it may leave moral residue.

True or false: Sophie's Choice, by William Styron, is the lecture's example of a moral dilemma.

TRUE - She must choose which child lives, or both will be killed.

True or false: The problem statement phase should state what the problem is, who has to act, and the moral nature of the problem.

TRUE - These are the three things to identify in Phase 1.

True or false: The three elements of problem analysis are stakeholders and their interests, relevant moral values, and relevant facts.

TRUE - Phase 2 covers these three elements.

True or false: A black-and-white strategy considers many creative options for action.

FALSE - It considers only two options: doing the action or not. Creativity is what helps escape it.

True or false: The strategy of cooperation looks for solutions by consulting other stakeholders.

TRUE - That is the definition.

True or false: Whistleblowing can only be done externally, openly, and by a current employee.

FALSE - It can be internal or external, anonymous or open, and by current or former employees.

True or false: The intuitionist framework evaluates options based on what one finds intuitively most acceptable, then gives arguments for it.

TRUE - One of the two frameworks in Phase 4; the other is the common sense method.

True or false: Wide reflective equilibrium aims to make considered moral judgments, moral principles and background theories coherent.

TRUE - These are the three types of moral beliefs.

True or false: The choice reached in the reflection phase is final and should not be revised.

FALSE - It is a provisional choice that can be revised and discussed with others.

True or false: Habermas held that moral deliberation should be decided by authority or power.

FALSE - Habermas said it should be decided on the basis of arguments, not authority or power.

True or false: An overlapping consensus is agreement on moral judgments even when people disagree on principles and background theories.

TRUE - Each participant justifies it within their own wide reflective equilibrium.

True or false: Rawls believed focusing on private reasons makes an overlapping consensus more likely.

FALSE - Rawls said focusing on public reasons makes overlapping consensus more likely.

True or false: Second-order learning concerns which goals to strive for and which moral values to consider.

TRUE - First-order learning is about achieving given goals better.

True or false: Openness means all relevant perspectives are included in the debate from the start.

FALSE - That is inclusiveness. Openness means new considerations and parties can enter the debate.

True or false: An ad hominem fallacy attacks the weakest version of an argument that no reasonable person would hold.

FALSE - That is a straw person. Ad hominem attacks the person's character instead of the argument.

True or false: The naturalistic fallacy assumes that what is the case is what ought to be the case.

TRUE - That is the definition.

True or false: The ostrich's fallacy says that as long as there is no obvious risk, there is no risk at all.

TRUE - One of the fallacies of risk.

True or false: The technocrat fallacy holds that only the general public should make decisions about technology.

FALSE - It holds that only the professional technocrat has any say.

True or false: Equating what is legal with what is moral is a fallacy.

TRUE - The Law = Morality fallacy. Z-Corp's "we meet the law" reasoning in Gilbane Gold is an example.

True or false: The Quasi-Categorical Imperative says an act is right only if the agent does not treat any valuable being as a mere means.

TRUE - That is QCI.

True or false: Reasonable Person Utilitarianism requires certainty that an act will produce the greatest utility.

FALSE - RPU only requires that a reasonable person would reasonably believe the utility will probably be as great as any alternative.

True or false: For the Moral Paradigm Test, you should pick a famous historical figure you have never met.

FALSE - You pick someone you know personally (relative, teacher, boss) and replace their negative traits with positive ones.

True or false: If your Moral Paradigm would not approve your decision, you go back and check whether you missed a moral factor or misapplied RPU or QCI.

TRUE - That is the instruction when the paradigm disagrees.