Canons against cannons? Social justice and the engineering ethics imaginary

Abstract

What if social justice were a core value for engineers? Is it possible, or desirable, to canonize social justice in a professional code? In this thought experiment, we borrow directly from the ethics code of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), for whom social justice is a core value, as well as prior work of scholars in the Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace community (esjp.org), to generate and explore new values, principles, and standards that reflect social justice aspirations for engineers. The following six principles will be explored: • Engineers' primary goal is to help people in need and to address social problems • Engineers challenge social injustice • Engineers practice cultural and epistemic humility • Engineers respect the dignity and worth of each person • Engineers recognize the central importance of human relationships • Engineers seek to live in peace with their individual selves, others, and the planet. These are meant to exist alongside values and principles expressed in current engineering ethics canons. We begin with a discussion of the lack of a central social good to which engineers aspire as a profession, and the inadequacies of public paramountcy as an aspirational vision. We argue that engineers do need such a vision, and propose social justice be adopted as this vision's foundational component. The proposed engineering ethics canons center on social justice and include articulation of values, statements of principles, and elaboration of standards. We conclude with a discussion motivating social justice as a value that all engineers can adopt.