To become an excellent, virtuous civil engineer, one has to focus on being the best version of themselves as possible. Many moral and ethical issues arise where one will need to determine what action will provide the best possible outcome. These choices will then define the moral and ethical integrity of an individual, and exploring these parameters will provide a greater understanding.
Furthermore, examining Aristotle’s understanding of happiness and virtue, along with the distinctions he makes between intellectual and moral virtues will provide insight into why individuals may act a certain way. Aristotle defines “happiness” as flourishing or living well as a good in itself. He believes that when an individual makes a decision, it is for
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Increasing my moral virtues through habit and practice has been ingrained in my persona ever since I was a child. I come from humble beginnings and from a social community where I had to make choices, whether I wanted to act like a weakling or be careless and impulsive. I had to find the middle ground and act with courage to not succumb to the two extremes and find the middle ground. Emphatically, I have had to deal with this my whole life, and I believe it is a fundamental characteristic that a professional engineer should exemplify. This virtue of thought is especially relevant in the civil engineering field as there can be situations where one would have to make a judgment and use their moral virtue to act correctly and not give in to a possible groupthink decision that would not have the best outcome. These are the situations in which one’s moral virtue would be displayed and show the real character of a …show more content…
These virtues which have been enhanced by my formal education at Texas A&M and over the course of my life will undoubtedly assist me when confronted with not just issues within the civil engineering field, but with many other types of problems, I may face during my lifetime. For the same reason, as I lead a life and career where I want to act as a virtuous person, I am confident that I will find happiness in what I
Martin, M.W. and Schinzinger, R. (2005) Ethics in Engineering. 4th ed. New York: McGraw Hill.
In conclusion, Aristotle’s elucidation of happiness is based on a ground of ethics because happiness to him is coveted for happiness alone. The life of fame and fortune is not the life for Aristotle. Happiness is synonymous for living well. To live well is to live with virtue. Virtue presents humans with identification for morals, and for Aristotle, we choose to have “right” morals. Aristotle defines humans by nature to be dishonored when making a wrong decision. Thus, if one choses to act upon pleasure, like John Stuart Mill states, for happiness, one may choose the wrong means of doing so. Happiness is a choice made rationally among many pickings to reach this state of mind. Happiness should not be a way to “win” in the end but a way to develop a well-behaved, principled reputation.
To clarify, the Engineering Code of Ethics is the set of rules established by the National Society of Professional Engineers that all engineers are expected to adhere to. In essence, the fundamental tenets of this code are that all engineers are expected to prioritize public safety, as well as be honest with their clients and the general public while only doing work that they are qualified to do. (“Code of Ethics,” n.d.). The reason this code is crucial in this case is because it offers guiding principles for the men and women who are in charge of so many of the various structures and buildings that are used by everyone in society. If the engineering population were to fail to adhere to this code, many people’s lives would be put in jeopardy; buildings might crumble, planes may crash, and bridges could collapse. This means that this code serves to keep engineers in check so that the world maintains stability, therefore its importance cannot be emphasized enough. Furthermore, since this code is nationally recognized, if a company’s engineers were to violate any aspect of it, it would be seen nation-wide as a misuse of power for the sake
In Book 1 of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he argues that happiness is the best good, and the goal of an individual and of those leading and governing society. Here, happiness is understood as both living well and doing well, rather than the convention sense of happiness as an emotion. According to Aristotle, happiness is achieved though actions involving reason and in accord with virtue, or the best of the virtues of there are more than one. In this paper, I will provide a brief overview of the work and its author, then proceed to provide an overview of the ideas expressed and the argumentation supporting them, before finally performing an analysis and critique of the ideas expressed.
To start, according to Aristotle, the end of every action aims at a good (1094a1-10). He goes on to say that the highest good is the most complete, that it is good in itself and is not chosen to gain something else. Aristotle believes that the highest good that every action aims for is happiness, because it is self-sufficient (1097b1-10). For example, why does a person want a high paying job? So they can earn money. Why does a person want money? So they can get things. Why does a person want to get things? So they can become happy, or believe that it would give them happiness. Aristotle comes to this conclusion by taking into account the opinions of people, realizing that almost everyone is trying to obtain happiness (1095a10-20). In addition, Aristotle believes the means for achieving happiness are through the excellence of one's being. The term Aristotle uses here is aretê, or virtue. Essentially, virtue is the excellence of something, in this case moral action (1095b20-30). Virtue leads to happiness because it "seems to be more durable even than the kinds of knowledge" (1100b10-20). Earlier, Aristotle came to the conclusion that happiness is something that is not changed easily. If ...
To a person walking down the street in downtown Indianapolis, he may be a hero because of his occupation, a civil engineer. What can a civil engineer do that is so heroic? For one, he designs the cities’ sewage system. People in the city cannot comprehend how vital it is to constitute a correctly piped sewage system. His designs transfer the cities’ waste to a safe place, so it can decompose in peace, and not endanger our health or our environment. He is not only protecting the Earth from harmful materials, he is also keeping our water clean a...
As members of this profession, engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity. Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare. Engineers must perform under a standard of professional behavior that requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct. (National Society of Professional Engineers) All buildings are designed by engineers all over the world. Before workers build the building, engineers have to calculate numbers accurate. If any mistakes made, there would have a big issue. So as engineers, people have the most lumbersome responsibilities to give all humans a safe harbor. So teamwork is absolutely important at this moment. The power of one person is limited, but teamwork makes a big difference. In the team, team members need to respect, listen to each other’s advices so that they can have more ideas to build the building better. They all have the same responsibilities to the society. They build good buildings not only benefit for other people, but also they enjoy the good environment. When engineers design the house, they need to think about questions from an overall view. As a good citizen, the person needs to do some contributions to protect the
Happiness is the goal of every human beings according to Aristotle, however what does happiness imply? It is in his attempt to define happiness and to find a way to attain it that Aristotle comes across the idea of virtue. It is thus necessary to explain the relationship between these two terms. I will start by defining the good and virtue and then clarify their close link with the argument of function, I will then go into more details in explaining the different ways in which they are closely related and finally I am going to give an account of the apparent contradiction in Book X which is a praise of the life of study.
Ethics refer to those habits or standards that are considered to show good character and conduct. In the professional practice of engineering, engineers are confronted with different ethical issues and interpersonal conflicts. These cases could range from a small scale involving few people to larger conflicts where the outcome influences the engineering community and the society at large. Classically, engineering education does not duly address the needs for ethical education to be incorporated into the technical curriculum. However, it has become axiomatic that engineers must exhibit good ethical behavior because safety of the people and the environment rely on the quality of the designs/services that engineers provide.
The civil engineering field is about gathering and interpreting data, being able to give technical presentations to colleagues, team work to design and build a project, projects range from the design and construction of dams, bridges, buildings, roads, and water supply systems. In most cases the works of engineers are admired and sought after. Engineers play an important role in the development and improvement of a society. Yet, like other technical and non-engineering careers the civil engineers also face issues, for example, regarding ethics, high energy building consumption, increased soil and coastal erosion, inadequate water quality, traffic congestion, and some poor infrastructures resilience to disasters. Another example is that unfortunately in the United Kingdom, the civil engineering industry is highly fragmented with 93% of companies having 14 or fewer employees which is not always a great idea, as written by John Miles in Civil Engineering Informatics. There is also a need to implement new professional and educational approaches to new challenges and new implications that are needed for the twenty-first century society. This paper will introduce and explain five different issues that civil engineers are currently facing and elaborate about how these challenges interrelate to each other.
Engineering ethics focuses on the behavior of the individual - the engineer, and the development of ethical standards governing their professional activities. Engineering ethics has always existed as a set of rules or a system that governs the behavior of an engineer. Among its main provisions, we can attribute such as the need to faithfully perform engineering work that would bring welfare and do not cause harm to people; be accountable for engineering professional activities; a good relationship ( customs and rules governing relations ) with other engineer, etc.
Happiness can be viewed as wealth, honour, pleasure, or virtue. Aristotle believes that wealth is not happiness, because wealth is just an economic value, but can be used to gain some happiness; wealth is a means to further ends. The good life, according to Aristotle, is an end in itself. Similar to wealth, honour is not happiness because honour emphases on the individuals who honour in comparison to the honouree. Honour is external, but happiness is not. It has to do with how people perceive one another; the good life is intrinsic to the...
Obstacles had never been obstructing my effort to succeed in life. As an engineer to be, it is important to me to be prepared for the hurdles in the real world. The world nowadays needs a person who could compete and has great abilities to stand on the same level as others. Multiple skills and critical opinion of an issue are essential for an engineer to jump into this challenging career. For me, a strategic planning and full preparation need to achieve the aim of being an expert engineer.
9. Martin, M. W., & Schinzinger, R. (2010). Introduction to engineering ethics (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
In addition, Russell also points out how components like experience, national exam, licensure, and specialty certification play a significant role in the civil engineering profession. These four components are the core thing that makes educators and practitioners has a chance for practicing civil engineering at the professional level, and become a professional engineer. By reading his paper (Russell 2013), it gives an idea to readers that to become a professional engineer it’s not an easy task. It requires a lot of work from educators to achieve