This paper aims to review the empirical and theoretical research on engineering ethics education, by focusing on the challenges reported in the literature. The analysis is conducted at four levels of the engineering education system. First, the individual level is dedicated to findings about teaching practices reported by instructors. Second, the institutional level brings together findings about the implementation and presence of ethics within engineering programmes. Third, the level of policy situates findings about engineering ethics education in the context of (...) accreditation. Finally, there is the level of the culture of engineering education. The multi-level analysis allows us to address some of the limitations of higher education research which tends to focus on individual actors such as instructors or remains focused on the levels of policy and practice without examining the deeper levels of paradigm and purpose guiding them. Our approach links some of the challenges of engineering ethics education with wider debates about its guiding paradigms. The main contribution of the paper is to situate the analysis of the theoretical and empirical findings reported in the literature on engineering ethics education in the context of broader discussions about the purpose of engineering education and the aims of reform programmes. We conclude by putting forward a series of recommendations for a socio-technical oriented reform of engineering education for ethics. (shrink)

This article investigates an aporia in the metaphysical thought of John Duns Scotus. On the one hand, there are strong textual grounds for saying that according to Scotus the subject matter of metaphysics excludes logical being. On this reading, metaphysics would be a transcendental, but not a supertranscendental, science. On the other hand, there are strong textual grounds for saying that according to Scotus the subject matter of metaphysics includes logical being. On this reading, metaphysics would be a supertranscendental, and (...) not just a transcendental, science. Two possible paths for resolving this aporia are considered and subsequently problematized. The aporia seems to be genuine, and recognition of this fact brings into sharper focus the position of Scotus’s metaphysics in the development of supertranscendental thought. (shrink)

This article presents an analysis of "spirituality." Ryle said that a belief is not known to be truly held unless one bases crucial action on it; but the qualifications "truly" and "crucial" can be stripped away. Spirituality then becomes consistency of actual action with a belief; or in behavior analytic terms, spirituality is "rule-governed" behavior. Beliefs can function not only as "discriminative stimuli" but also as "reinforcing stimuli." A belief need not correspond to the world as experienced in order to (...) have these functions. Spirituality, thus far in the analysis, is only rule-governed behavior, regardless of the source of the rule and regardless of the content of the rule except that the rule must specify actually performable behavior so that consistency of the action with the belief can be assessed. The separation of action from belief is a form of alienation in a Marxian sense ; to paraphrase Kant, beliefs without actions are empty and actions without beliefs are blind. That is, a belief that is not acted upon is literally useless, and action that is not based on a belief is literally irrational. Alienation is resolved when action is based on "right" motives, which are motives based on a set of principles. Analogously, spirituality is a special kind of rule-governed behavior because the rules that govern this behavior are part of a coherent system that defines "rightness.". (shrink)

Philosophical analyses can aid scientists in several ways. For example, they can help resolve disagreements among scientists about issues such as the relative value of facts versus theories and observations versus inferences; they provide historical descriptions of how science went when it went well or badly and scientists can imitate these descriptions as though they were prescriptive rules; they identify "families" of theories and methodologies on the basis of common uses of key words, which can help scientists understand theories and (...) methodologies other than their own; and they can provide essential backgrounds for scientistsí debates about issues such as final causality, chance causality, and context effects. However, philosophical analyses cannot provide support for empirical findings or theoretical concepts. (shrink)

Después de un breve excursus histórico, absolutamente no exhaustivo, pero dirigido a entender el significado del término hipocresía dentro de algunos autores, me concentro en su defensa paradójica. Paradójica porque, a pesar de ser moralmente reprochable, la actitud hipócrita preserva la integridad del valor ético, que se respeta aparentemente y que, sin embargo, se viola en secreto. After a short historical excursus, that doesn't pretend to be complete, but is only directed to understand the meaning of the term hypocrisy in (...) some authors. I concentrate on its paradoxical defense. Paradoxical because, though morally censurable, the hypocritical attitude preserves the integrity of the ethical value, that it apparently respects, but secretly violates. (shrink)

This chapter deals with the link between language and epistemology of time, according with the paper issued in this session. The arise of natural science, in Early Modern Age, makes possible the constitution of an epistemic paradigm which connects himself to the definition of human nature, and allows to research objective rules for the human history and human language. The Early Twentieth century, breaks this standard, as is possible to see in the essays proposed in this part of the book.

Este texto tem a intenção de percorrer panoramicamente alguns pontos de referência importantes no debate contemporâneo sobre o problema da motivação moral no contexto da discussão entre posições cognitivistas e não-cognitivistas em ética. A idéia básica é a de que o não-cognitivismo encontrou tradicionalmente um apoio importante nos argumentos internalistas, os quais, por sua vez, retiram sua força da percepção comum de que as considerações morais não são inertes, ou seja, possuem, em algum sentido, uma capacidade motivadora que dificilmente podemos (...) ignorar. Se, agora, quisermos confrontar a posição não-cognitivista, inevitavelmente seremos levados a confrontar-nos também com os argumentos internalistas. O que tentamos fazer aqui foi simplesmente apresentar panoramicamente os problemas e as alternativas que podemos encontrar ao longo desses enfrentamentos. (shrink)

In the article “A Proposal to Address NFL Club Doctors’ Conflicts of Interest and to Promote Player Trust,” Glenn Cohen et al. write, “The [NFL's] current structure forces club doctors to have obligations to two parties—the club and the player—and to make difficult judgments about when one party's interests must yield to another's.” I can understand why some might be suspicious about bias in the current NFL medical system, in which the club doctors have a professional duty to put their (...) player-patients’ best interests first yet are employed by clubs, which have a primary goal of winning football games. It is my opinion, however, that neither the club nor the player needs to be sacrificed. I base this opinion partly on my experience as an NFL player in the early 1980s, partly on several years as team physician for the Boston Red Sox, and partly on my twenty-three-years of experience as a physician with the Connecticut Workers’ Compensation medical system, which supposes that physicians can be fair to both workers and employers. (shrink)

[Reading Samuel Beckett's "Fin de Partie". Notes from a seminar]. The paper sets out the results of a didactic workshop about Fin de Partie by Samuel Beckett held by the Author at the ISPF. After clarifying the link between the concept of absurdity and the concept of contradiction, and touching the issue in Giuseppe Rensi, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, the Author presents his ontological reading of Beckett’s play.