Texas A & M: The Moral Virtue Of Computer Engineering

Engineers have to deal with increasing responsibilities as technology is each day more involved in our daily lives. Hence, it is important that engineers are able to make the correct decisions on which is the right way to act. Engineers can base themselves in the several norms and rules that are outlined by their professional organizations. However, there is a finite amount of things that can be stated as rules. For this reason, and as the Good Engineer reading proposes, it is important that engineers posses virtues that would enable them to distinguish what is good or wrong even if its is not explicitly expressed within a rule. An engineer that has virtues will have the predisposition to act rightly. Furthermore, having virtues would not …show more content…
Some technical excellences such as critical thinking, creativity, and logical thinking should be virtues that a good engineer in this area must have as they are needed to deal with the typical problems found in Computer Engineering. Also, a good Computer Engineer must have the moral virtue of courage to overcome any difficulties presented and to confidently present and defend her ideas to others. Specially, if the ideas question the ethically rightfulness or safety of something, a good engineer must have the courage to expose this to others. Another virtue very important is the virtue of pragmatic thinking in the sense that an engineer must try to maximize efficiency and productivity. Or in other words to do as much as possible with the resources available. A good engineer also needs the virtue of humility which is important specially to be able to recognize owns mistakes and to learn from them. An engineer must also have the virtue of carefulness and do all her work with diligence. This is specially important when dealing with dangerous tasks that could jeopardize the safety of many people. The reading “A Good Engineer” also introduces a non technical excellence which I think is very important for all engineers. It is called techno-social sensitivity and it is described as the awareness of how the technology that we develop impacts society. I think this is vital for the flourishing of an engineer as it allows them to think of new ways that technology could help to improve people’s lives. Yet, it also allows them to perceive when this might be the opposite and technology is instead detrimental. Lastly, I think the virtue of perseverance is one of the most important for the flourishing of an engineer. Failure will be inevitably present at points of our engineering careers. However, a good