Teaching ethics of care as part of engineering

Summary form only given as follows. Engineering ethics courses have begun to find a place in many schools. Good textbooks and other material are available for teaching these courses. Most of these present a set of principles as a basis for engineering ethics and a number of examples and cases to have students think through ethical dilemmas. The predominant principles used as a basis for discussing these cases are: respect for persons, utility, justice, rights and duty. One dimension is not covered by this traditional list is that of care. The idea of care, first enunciated by Carol Gilligan, has since been developed by various philosophers. In this paper, we explore two separate aspects of engineering ethics education: (1) how do we add the dimension of care to the set of values that are currently part of engineering ethics?; and (2) how do we incorporate values into all engineering courses so that ethics is an inherent part of the engineering student's education? Our presentation attempts to engage the audience in this exploration.