Indirect Rule Utilitarianism

The code of ethics for Computer Engineering is specific in certain areas. For instance it speaks of bribery and that no professional should accept any form of bribery. This is a common problem in many areas of any profession so it is not surprising that there is a clause for it in the computer engineering ethics. It could have also been put into place because people in the profession were taking bribes for things like “cutting corners” in designs and using “lack luster” material. Now bribery is not the only rule and depending on some people’s opinions not the most important. Another important rule is the improvement of the understanding of technology. This could have been placed because at some point the majority felt no need to improve anything …show more content…
What I mean is that in simplistic utilitarianism if there is a situation where killing one person could save four then that is what a simplistic utilitarian would do but an indirect rule utilitarian may consider it but would not do it because there is a law that specifically says murder is bad. To me it means that the laws already in place are designed to help bring about the greatest happiness for the majority and as long the majority follow these rules then they will work so an indirect rule utilitarian will do what they can to follow these rules. Now an indirect utilitarian will also examine moral rules however these may vary based on the culture. For instance from what I understand, bribery in some cultures is an accepted tradition and can even be considered rude if you do not offer some form of bribe. However for an indirect utilitarian in an American culture the rule about bribery in the code of ethics should be followed. It was put there for a reason which was most likely that traveling engineers were accepting bribes in other countries. Why put this rule in though if such a situation happened in a culture that accepted bribes? Most likely because it goes against the united states laws to accept any form of a bribe and also because if engineers began accepting bribes in other locations then what would stop them from accepting bribes back home. These bribes could lead to flawed designs and subpar material which leads to problems with the law which no indirect utilitarian would want. To build on that rule they very likely introduced the rule about honesty which is supposed to have engineers give realistic time tables and claims. For instance if an engineer claimed he could design and build a robot in a week for one hundred dollars then his claim could be considered an outright lie which would cause credibility issues with his organization.