Over the years a popular yet devastating discovery has been revolving around the famous German vehicle manufacture Volkswagen. The case sparks an intriguing argument amongst engineering ethics and provokes many with compelling sides. The Volkswagen scandal was a strategic and innovative emissions cover up by Volkswagen engineers. A device created that allowed German vehicles to pass emissions test when they really weren’t. James Robert Liang a now former engineer for Volkswagen is the first in the scandal to be slammed with charges, Liang’s acts along with other engineers and Volkswagen as a company leave a phenomenal opportunity to discuss engineering ethics. Was Liang following a standard to a Kantian duty ethic as an engineer? Does Liang’s duty construct itself with categorical imperative to prove just morality in his actions?
Immanuel Kant’s idea of ethics revolves around the idea of morality fulfilling a duty not based on the consequence of an action such as Utilitarianism. Kant’s moral theory falls into a type of test that one can use to justify weather an action can be classified as moral or not. Kant calls it the Categorical Imperative which has two very important factors that one must consider. A maxim which can be deemed as an individual’s principle and that you must apply this principle
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Perhaps Liang was after nothing but his own self-interest. Essentially Liang could have very well decided the morality of this situation amongst his own inner thoughts and opinions, without considering the situation on a global scale. If Liang perused the thought of only valuing his reputation with Volkswagen then this results in a poor sense of dignity. Kant believed that dignity could be interpreted as all beings possess worth so it is clear that Liang would have violated Kant’s theory of autonomy because his decision disregards the value and safety of other individual