Question 1
A community is composed of a set of individuals. In order for it to develop, each individual should be socially conscious and responsible towards the society, as it is a core of their existence. Social responsibility according to Vanasupa is about refining the quality of relations with key stakeholders. Vanasupa further states that individuals have societal obligations to fulfill and in that way harm or help themselves or others. Engaging in acts that may impair oneself or others should actually not be classified as a social responsibility. It is more of being irresponsible and may bring retrogression to the contemporary society.
However, social responsibility awareness should be complimented by technical education. The awareness should be comprehensive; people should know why and how to act. The classroom should not be the major place where the awareness is created; all members of the society should take part in creating the awareness.
We are all connected to one another in one way or another. Vanasupa fails to give an explanation of how things are connected. People find it hard to understand how various things are linked. Making responsible choices early in the developing phase prepares one for responsibilities in their future life. However, the choices should not be made too early in life when an individual’s mind is still too young. Optimization of opportunities will enable us give the best to the society. The earth is not a Closed Thermodynamic System as resources can be used, reused and replaced if exhausted. New resources are also continually being created by engineers. Though the sun is a major source of energy, there are so many other energy sources. The issue is how to distribute the energy. Engineering curricula should go beyond the focus of technical skill so as to equip students and promote the five principles advocated by Vanasupa.
Question 2
Philosophers perceive loyalty as being faithful or devoted to a person, group or country. Employment contracts can be written or verbal. Every employee must act with loyalty whether this duty is written or not.
Employees such as engineers have to respect their own loyalties, loyalties to their employers and jobs, and the wider loyalties to the general public. In case the loyalties conflict, it is recommended that wider loyalties be adhered to at the expense of job or employee loyalties. Engineers should use general values and engineering judgment to determine if a project involves an unjustifiable risk to the community. If the project will have adverse effect on the public good, engineers should disregard employee loyalty and withdraw from the project as this clearly falls in the realm of ethics of the profession.
Acts such as whistleblowing are considered by employees to be a great disloyalty. Employees may decide to be disloyal to the employer and his own job and blow the whistle for the sake of public good. However, the law offers little protection to whistleblowers and they may end up facing dire consequences from the organization as most of them consider this as being disloyal to the employer as well as their jobs. The whistle blower should not be intimidated or discredited by the employer as they were just playing a role in ensuring public good and this is commendable in professionalism.
However, the truth is an employee is only important to an organization as long as he helps it to drive up profit margins and upsurge shareholders value as this are its main objectives. If your loyalty does not contribute to this, the contract can straightforwardly be terminated. However, employees should express loyalty in their work.
Question 4
Just war theory is a canon which holds that wars can meet the criteria of political, religious or philosophical justice provided it meets certain conditions. The concept of just war is controversial as conditions that a war has to meet to be considered just vary according to personal interpretation and are subject to political mystification. The theory addresses the concepts of jus ad bellum, jus in bello and jus post bellum.
Engineers should be held answerable to the principles of just war theory. For instance, engineers in the arm industry though they do not deploy missiles on the combat zone and are not in the military chain of command, they are morally accountable both for choosing the companies that employ them the weapons and the types of weapons that are developed. They should deploy weapons only when the intension is right and not just for personal gains.
Engineers should have a just reason for conducting any project as their actions might have devastating effects to the entire society. Engineering decisions should be steady with the health, safety and Welfare of the public. Engineers can be the just cause and just means of a war as it they who are concerned with the production and deployment of weapons. Engineers should partake activities whose probability of success are high and its paybacks are more than its cost as this falls in the domain of engineering ethics. Engineers should therefore bear in mind the principles of just war when making any decision.
