Responsibility in Engineering: Victor Paschkis vs. Wernher von Braun

Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department,' says Wernher von Braun." So go the lyrics of Tom Lehrer's song, "Wernher von Braun." They neatly capture the notion that engineers and applied scientists should confine themselves to solving the technical problems that their organizational superiors assign to them. Defining the problems and deciding what to do with the solutions shouldn't concern them. The eminent rocket scientist Wernher von Braun evidently accepted this philosophy. During World War II, he led the development of the V-2 missile that the Nazis used against the population of London. (He was, at the time, a Nazi party member and an SS officer; www. answere.com/topic/wernher-von-braun). In contrast, Victor Paschkis, a distinguished professor of mechanical engineering, cared very much about where the rockets came down. He championed the idea that engineers and scientists should feel personally responsible for the consequences of their work.