In “Integrating Ethics and Design”, McLean makes arguments against many of the practices in higher education with regard to how it is presented. He argues that Engineering Ethics as it is taught is a very theoretical and removed topic from the practical and analytical side of Engineering, and that the circumstances under which Ethics is taught sends the message to students that it is not as important as the other topics they learn in reaching their degree. There are many of the finer points that I agree with McLean on throughout his arguments, but some that I disagree with as well.
McLean makes the argument that students are not properly convinced that universities believe that Engineering Ethics is an important part of their education. I agree
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He argues that introducing moral questions about the career path of an engineer so late into the degree plan is unfair because it could make students apprehensive and dissuade them from pursuing engineering. From my own experience with peers, I have never once heard of someone taking ethics and wanting to change their major, so I find this particular point hard to get behind. However, some of the other points he makes I do agree with. By isolating the class, the students view the class more as how to be moral rather than integrating Ethics into their decisions. McLean goes further to make the point that students will believe that the role of ethical behavior will fall on how their designs are used rather than on what they design. I think for the most part this is true because Engineers design all kinds of things that are generally good that can be used in harmful ways. Instead of just accepting that it is the user’s responsibility to decide how to best apply their technology, the engineer could be more careful in the design process to eliminate possible chances for