PHIL 2471

Ethical Issues in Engineering Practice

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

This course surveys a range of ethical issues that arise in professional engineering, and provides discussion-based practice in analyzing and addressing them. Using normative frameworks from professional codes, philosophical ethics, value-sensitive design, feminist theory, and science & technology studies, the course engages with a series of historical, current, and fictional case studies, across a wide variety of engineering disciplines. Specific topics to be discussed may include: privacy, consumer rights, smart cities, geoengineering, artificial intelligence, and cloning. Instruction is through a mix of lectures and discussions.

Prerequisites For engineering students, completion of one First-Year Writing Seminar (FWS).

Enrollment Priority For engineering students, enrollment limited to: sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Distribution Requirements (KCM-AG, SBA-AG)

Last 4 Terms Offered 2025SP, 2024SP, 2023SP, 2022SP

Outcomes

• Be familiar with and able to identify a range of ethical and social issues in professional and academic engineering practice.
• Understand some of the major normative theories in philosophy, science and technology studies, feminist theory, and other approaches.
• Be able to apply normative theories to specific cases in engineering, from a variety of different stakeholder perspectives, including the perspectives of historically marginalized social groups.
• Be able to analyze, evaluate, and produce normative arguments using evidence and techniques of philosophical argument.
• Have improved their research skills and written communication skills, particularly in argumentative writing.

View Enrollment Information