Science and Engineering Ethics

, Volume 23, Issue 2, pp 469–488 | Cite as

Aristotle and Autism: Reconsidering a Radical Shift to Virtue Ethics in Engineering

Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:

Abstract

Virtue-based approaches to engineering ethics have recently received considerable attention within the field of engineering education. Proponents of virtue ethics in engineering argue that the approach is practically and pedagogically superior to traditional approaches to engineering ethics, including the study of professional codes of ethics and normative theories of behavior. This paper argues that a virtue-based approach, as interpreted in the current literature, is neither practically or pedagogically effective for a significant subpopulation within engineering: engineers with high functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Because the main argument for adopting a character-based approach is that it could be more successfully applied to engineering than traditional rule-based or algorithmic ethical approaches, this oversight is problematic for the proponents of the virtue-based view. Furthermore, without addressing these concerns, the wide adoption of a virtue-based approach to engineering ethics has the potential to isolate individuals with ASD and to devalue their contributions to moral practice. In the end, this paper gestures towards a way of incorporating important insights from virtue ethics in engineering that would be more inclusive of those with ASD.

Keywords

Engineering ethics Virtue ethics Autism spectrum disorder Rules Moral psychology Ethics education 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

References

  1. American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.Google Scholar
  2. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. American Society of Civil Engineers. (2006). Code of ethics. Reston, VA: Author.Google Scholar
  4. Anscombe, G. E. M. (1958). Modern moral philosophy. Philosophy, 33, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Aristotle. (2009). Nicomachean ethics. (W. D. Ross & L. Brown, Trans.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  6. Athanassoulis, N., & Ross, A. (2010). A virtue ethical account of making decisions about risk. Journal of Risk Research, 13(2), 217–230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Baron, M. (1984). The alleged moral repugnance of action from duty. Journal of Philosophy, 81, 197–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. Baron, M. (1985). Kantian ethics almost without apology. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
  9. Baron, M. (1997). Kantian ethics and claims of detachment. In R. M. Schott (Ed.), Feminist interpretations of Immanuel Kant (pp. 145–172). University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
  10. Baron-Cohen, S. (1989). The autistic child’s theory of mind: A case of specific developmental delay. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 30(2), 285–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Baron-Cohen, S., Jolliffe, T., Mortimore, C., & Robertson, M. (1997a). Another advanced test of theory of mind: Evidence from very high functioning adults with autism or asperger syndrome. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 38(7), 813–822.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a ‘‘theory of mind’’? Cognition, 21(1), 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Burtenshaw, A., & Hobson, E. (2007). Mathematical talent is linked to autism. Human Nature, 18(2), 125–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Stott, C., Bolton, P., & Goodyer, I. (1997b). Is there a link between engineering and autism? Autism, 1(1), 101–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Betzler, M. (2008). Kant’s ethics of virtues. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Chappell, T. (2013). Virtue ethics in the twentieth century. In D. C. Russell (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to virtue ethics (pp. 149–171). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Dreyfus, H., & Dreyfus, S. (1986). Mind over machine: The power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
  18. Driver, J. (2011). Consequentialism. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  19. Foot, P. (1978). Virtues and vices and other essays in moral philosophy (Vol. 90). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  20. Geurts, H. M., Corbett, B., & Solomon, M. (2009). The paradox of cognitive flexibility in autism. Trends in Cognitive Science, 13(2), 74–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Han, H. (2015). Virtue ethics, positive psychology, and a new model of science and engineering ethics education. Science and Engineering Ethics, 21(2), 441–460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Harris, C. E. (2008). The good engineer: Giving virtue its due in engineering ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics, 14(2), 153–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Hay, C. (2013). Kantianism, liberalism, and feminism: Resisting oppression. London: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Herman, B. (1981). On the value of action from the motive of duty. Philosophical Review, 90, 359–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Hill, T. (1992). Dignity and practical reason in Kant’s moral theory. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
  26. Hill, E. (2004). Executive dysfunction in autism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(1), 26–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Hursthouse, R. (2007). Environmental virtue ethics. In R. L. Walker & P. J. Ivanhoe (Eds.), Environmental ethics (pp. 155–172). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  28. Hursthouse, R. (2011). Virtue ethics and the treatment of animals. In T. L. Beauchamp & R. G. Frey (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of animal ethics (pp. 119–143). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Hursthouse, R. (2013). Virtue ethics. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2013 Ed.). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/ethics-virtue/
  30. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. (2014). Code of conduct. Retrieved from http://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/p7-8.html
  31. Jones, A. P., Happe, F. G. H., Gilbert, F., Burnett, S., & Viding, E. (2010). Feeling, caring, knowing: Different types of empathy deficit in boys with psychopathic tendencies and autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51(11), 1188–1197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Jost, L. J., & Wuerth, J. (2011). Perfecting virtue: New essays on Kantian ethics and virtue ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
  33. Kant, I., Wood, A. W., & Schneewind, J. B. (2002). Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
  34. Kuhn, S. (1998). When worlds collide: Engineering students encounter social aspects of production. Science and Engineering Ethics, 4, 457–472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
  36. Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1987). Metarepresentation and autism: How not to lose one’s marbles. Cognition, 27(3), 291–294.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. MacIntyre, A. (2007). After virture: A study in moral theory. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.Google Scholar
  38. Martin, M. W. (2002). Personal meaning and ethics in engineering. Science and Engineering Ethics, 8(4), 545–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  39. Martin, M. W. (2006). Moral creativity in science and engineering. Science and Engineering Ethics, 12, 241–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Moore, A. S. (2006). A dream not denied: Students on the specturum. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/education/edlife/traits.html
  41. Morton, O. (2001). Think different? Wired. Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/baron-cohen.html
  42. National Society of Professional Engineers. (2007). Code of ethics for engineers. Retrieved from http://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics
  43. Pritchard, M. S. (2001). Responsible engineering: The importance of character and imagination. Science and Engineering Ethics, 7(3), 391–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. Railton, P. (2003). Alienation, consequentialism, and the demands of morality. In N. Badhwar (Ed.), Friendship: A philosophical reader (pp. 211–244). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Reprinted from Philosophy and Public Affairs, 13, (1984) 134–171.Google Scholar
  45. Ross, P. E. (2006). When engineers’ genes collide. IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved from http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/ethics/when-engineers-genes-collide
  46. Ross, A., & Athanassoulis, N. (2012). Risk and virtue ethics. In S. Roeser, R. Hillerbrand, P. Sandin, & M. Peterson (Eds.), Handbook of risk theory (pp. 833–856). Dordrecht: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  47. Safer, M. (2012). Jake: Math prodigy proud of his autism. CBC News. Retreived from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57358845/jake-math-prodigy-proud-of-his-autism/
  48. Sandler, R. (2007). Character and environment: A virtue-oriented approach to environmental ethics. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
  49. Schmidt, J. A. (2014). Changing the paradigm for engineering ethics. Science and Engineering Ethics, 20(4), 985–1010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  50. Senland, A. K., & Higgins-D’Alessandro, A. (2013). Moral reasoning and empathy in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: Implications for moral education. Journal of Moral Education, 42(2), 209–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  51. Shulman, C., Guberman, A., Shiling, N., & Bauminger, N. (2012). Moral and social reasoning in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42(7), 1364–1376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  52. Solomon, M., Ozonoff, S., Cummings, N., & Carter, C. S. (2008). Cognitive control in autism spectrum disorders. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 26, 239–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  53. Stocker, M. (2003). The schizophrenia of modern ethical theories. In R. Crisp & M. Slote (Eds.), Virtue ethics (pp. 66–78). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  54. Swanton, C. (2013). 14 The definition of virtue ethics. In D. C. Russell (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to virtue ethics (p. 315). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  55. Walker, R. L., & Ivanhoe, P. J. (Eds.). (2007). Working virtue. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  56. Wei, X., Yu, J. W., Shattuck, P., McCracken, M., & Blackorby, J. (2012). Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) participation among college students with an autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43(7), 1539–1546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  57. Whitbeck, C. (1996). Ethics as design: Doing justice to moral problems. Hastings Center Report, 26(3), 9–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  58. Williams, B. (1981). Persons, character and morality. In B. Williams (Ed.), Moral luck (pp. 1–19). New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of PhilosophyUniversity of Massachusetts LowellLowellUSA

Personalised recommendations