Virtue Ethics In Engineering

Professional ethics has been an essential topic for engineers to comply to. This concept of professional ethics can be categorized into three varieties: prohibitive ethics, preventive ethics, and virtue ethics. Virtue ethics emphasizes the concept for engineers to promote the qualities of a character and also the quality of life of the people. This is supported by the Texas Engineer Practice Act where it is stated that: “Engineers shall be entrusted to protect the health, safety, property, and welfare of the public in the practice of their profession” (23). In this paper, we are going to reflect the concept of virtue ethics for engineers, specifically computer scientists.
According to Aristotle’s concept in virtue ethics, we shouldn’t focus …show more content…
Virtues of thought focuses on characteristics that relates to the intelligence of person. Some examples of virtues of thought are: phronesis (wise judgment), techne (skills and craft), episteme (knowledge), etc. Most of the virtues that are related to virtues of thought can be learned or shared through teachings. On the other hand, virtues of character focuses on characteristics that relates to the ethical values of the person. Some examples of virtues of character are: prudence (wisdom), temperance (self-control), courage (bravery), etc. These virtue of characteristics are usually learned through practice or habit. People should implement these characteristics in their lives to understand it …show more content…
In this technological era, there are plenty of technologies that are waiting to be discovered. To keep up with that, computer scientists are expected to be active every time; computer scientists should never wait for the next technology come up, instead they should be the one who pushes the boundaries of technology every day. Other than being active intellectually, one of the most underrated virtue to have as an engineer is to be active socially as well. Despite the misconception, a lot of employers actually prefer workers who have good social skills as they tend to work better with their coworkers and usually promotes more leadership value. Moreover, it is also important for computer scientists to have integrity of himself. This is especially important in cybersecurity as computer scientists will hold a huge responsibility to his/her organization. Computer scientists should always try to minimize every single vulnerability possible and never spoil classified information to unauthorized