Abstract
The thesis of the paper is that there are no important differences between problems in business ethics and problems in engineering ethics. The problems are both of the same logical type. What keeps this contention from being obvious is that many view engineers as professionals and business persons as nonprofessionals. If you accept the traditional definition of ‘professional’ neither engineering nor business qualify. If you adopt the attitudinal definition of a profession which I propose, both practitioners could be professionals. This thesis is then tested by applying it to six specific issues in business and/or engineering ethics.
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Norman E. Bowie is Director at the Center for the Study of Values and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Delaware. Previously, he was Executive Secretary at the American Philosophical Association and received the Phi Beta Kappa Award. Important publications: Ethical Theory and Business, co-editor with Tom Beauchamp, Prentice Hall, 1979, Ethics, Public Policy and Criminal Justice, co-editor with Fred Elliston, Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain, 1982, Ethical Theory in the Last Quarter of the 20th Century, editor, Hackett Publishing, 1983, and Making Ethical Decisions, editor, McGraw-Hill (forthcoming). He has also written numerous articles in professional journals.
An earlier version of this paper was read at a conference on applied ethics as part of an NEH sponsored project, National Project on Philosophy and Engineering Ethics, University of Florida, January 13–15, 1982.
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Bowie, N.E. Are business ethics and engineering ethics members of the same family?. J Bus Ethics 4, 43–52 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382672
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00382672