Webster's Dictionary defines ethics as: the discipline dealing with what is good and bad, and with moral duty and obligation; further, a set of moral principles or values; a theory or system of moral values; the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group.

The important question here is, what does the word ETHICS mean to you? From the time you were a child, just learning from your family about living, you have often been told not to do something because it was wrong, or to do something because it was the right thing to do.  In this manner you have been learning about ETHICS without much thought about a formal definition.

As a student you have been faced with ethical questions since you first started school.   You may have been asked a question about your conduct and have debated with yourself about your answer, mainly because you answer might get you in trouble.  If you were concerned with right and wrong at the time, your ETHICAL sense overruled your concern for getting into "trouble" and you answered truthfully.

To this day, this same guide, your conscience, helps you to decide what to do in school...how to answer a question...how to be ETHICAL.  You are practicing ETHICS.   Your commitment too honesty in school...academic honesty...is a measure of how well you are learning ETHICS.

The concept of ETHICS is quite real in high school and in college.  This holds true particularly for engineering students.  You might ask yourselves why ETHICS is important to an engineering student.  Why is ETHICS important to an engineer...or to any one of us?

How would you feel if you could not trust your friend to give you an honest answer to a question?  Say you were missing a pencil or a calculator and you asked your friend if he knew what happened to it.  If you could not trust his answer, what would your feelings be toward your friend?

In the business world, many of the day-to-day affairs are carried out without much thought for what is right or wrong.  This is because many business people have been brought up to make this evaluation almost without the quality of a commodity or product for financial gain, without being detected, for example, that the question of ETHICS arises.

With some people, fear of the law, fear of punishment, fear of disapproval by their friends - all or any of these emotions can influence the application of ETHICS to a situation.  There are times when it is a personal struggle to reach a decision.   There is a weighing of consequences.  The stronger one's conscience, to more quickly a judgment can be made, and usually in favor of what is right.

The scientific and engineering professions have a high standard of ETHICS.  It is quite necessary, because many of the things scientists and engineers do affect both their own lives and those of the public as well.  If a scientist reports a development from the laboratory incorrectly, it can even endanger someone's life.  If an engineer cheats on a design, it can also cost lives.  All of us would be concerned about driving over a bridge built by an engineer who cheated in school.

We have learned of a number of situations in recent years in which people have acted UNETHICALLY and the results have been very bad for the people who trusted them.   Insider trading on the New York Stock Exchange is one example; some major wrongdoers have gone to prison.  What we are looking at is wrongdoing by people in public life whom we have been accustomed to trust.

For engineers, various societies present examples and set policies that include patterns of ETHICAL behavior.  An important policy paper is entitled CODE OF ETHICS OF ENGINEERS, from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.  It starts out, "Engineers uphold and advance the integrity, honor, and dignity of the Engineering Profession by:

• using their knowledge and skill for the enhancement of human welfare;
• being honest and impartial, and serving with fidelity the public, their employers and clients, and
• striving to increase the competence and prestige of the engineering profession."

A copy of this code is included with this lesson, together with the "Fundamental Canons."