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Abstract
This paper maps approaches to engineering ethics in the People's Republic of China. It is addressed primarily to English-language scholars interested in learning more about one aspect of the complex historical and cultural context of technological education in a nation that now graduates more engineers than any other in the world. Although the basic terms of this mapping – i.e., traditionalism vs. modernism – will strike some non-Chinese readers as too simple, it nevertheless represents a common conceptualization within the community of discourse being presented. Engineering ethics studies in China today are constituted by a dialogue between traditional Chinese value systems concerning engineering and modernist perspectives influenced by both Marxism and more technoscientifically advanced nations as a result of global technology transfers and economic exchanges. As a preliminary exploration of this dialogue, the paper offers a historical-philosophical narrative of engineering and engineering ethics in China as reflective of traditional attitudes shaped by engineering in the premodern sense of gong cheng and its modern reinterpretation in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The paper then outlines some of the main research areas in contemporary Chinese engineering ethics studies. Finally, in the face of globalization, the traditionalism-modernism tension is used to characterize contemporary challenges in engineering ethics in China. The paper concludes with an argument addressed more to Chinese than to non-Chinese scholars, suggesting a need to rethink engineering ethics in order to redefine the meaning of ‘made in China’.
Notes
1Mitcham, “Engineering Ethics in Global Perspective,” Citation2009.
2National Academy of Engineering, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Citation2008, p. 217.
3Gereffi et al., “Getting the Numbers Right,” Citation2008, p. 13.
4Bi, “Guan yu zhong guo gong cheng zhuan ye ren zheng de suo jian suo si” [Observation and Speculation Concerning the Engineering Accreditation in China], Citation2009, p. 14.
5Ministry of Education, Number of Specialties and Number of Educational Programs Established by Field of Study in Regular Higher Educational Institutions, Citation2010.
6Ministry of Education, Number of Regular Higher Educational Institutions, Citation2010.
7U.S. News and World Report, World's Best Universities: Engineering and IT, Citation2010.
8As part of the State Council of China, CAE functions as consulting institution for carrying out strategic research on developing engineering science and technology, helping the State Council to convert the macro-economic mandates to the specific policies and processes by means of socio-engineered constructions, and promoting the public understanding of engineering.
9Such a declaration was led by the inception of the Round Table Meeting on November 12, 1997 in Osaka, Japan and subsequent annual meeting with the objective of discussing regional, common, technological issues and providing impartial, balanced advice for continuous progress on engineering technology in East Asia.
12Needham and Wang, Science and Civilization in China, Citation1965, p. 9.
10Mitukuni, “The Chinese Concept of Technology,” Citation1979.
11Broadly speaking, the Chinese classics refer to the texts written in vernacular Chinese or in classical Chinese which existed before 1912 when the last imperial Chinese dynasty, the Qing dynasty (1616 CE-1912 CE), fell.
13CE stands for Common Era, as is a non-sectarian replacement for AD (Anno Domini, In the Year of Our Lord) that is standard in Western as well as Chinese scholarship. It is, for instance, recommended by the Chicago Manual of Style.
14Yang and Xu, “Gong cheng fan chou yan bian kao lue” [Evolution of the Concept of Engineering], Citation2002.
15Mitcham, Thinking through Technology, Citation1994.
16Mohism was one of the four main philosophic schools (the other three were Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism) during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BCE to 480 BCE) and the Warring States Period (479 BCE to 221 BCE). It was considered as the early premodern form of science and engineering society and a major rival to Confucianism with its emphasis on the principle of “inclusive love.”
17Yin and Li, “Chinese Perspective,” Citation2005.
18Yu, The Ethics of Confucius and Aristotle, Citation2007, p. 28.
19For useful references to this work, see Elman, On Their Own Terms, Citation2005.
20As an aside, it is interesting to note that in China it is more common to talk about the “management” of human affairs and social institutions, as well as technology and engineering, than their “governance.”
21My adapted translation, Zhuang zi, chapter 12.
22My adapted translation, Zhuang zi, chapter 12.
23The word “feudal” here is a technical term in Marxist historiography, referring to a pre-capitalist economic system and its associated cultural formations in which the ruling class, through its control of arable land, dominates a majority of peasant farmers.
24Yates, “Science and Technology,” Citation2003.
25Mitcham, Thinking through Technology, Citation1994.
26Yin and Li, “Chinese Perspective,” Citation2005, p. 320.
27Lindbeck, “Organization and Development of Science,” Citation1961, pp. 23–24.
28Lindbeck, “Organization and Development of Science,” Citation1961, p. 24.
29Chu, “Project Report,” Citation2007, p. 3.
30Li, “STS in China,” Citation1995, p. 2.
31The Chinese Academy of Engineering et al., Asian Engineers' Guidelines of Ethics, Nov. 1, 2004.
32Mitcham, Ji shu zhe xue gai lun [Introduction to Philosophy of Technology], Citation1999.
33Cutcliffe, Ideas, Machines, and Values, Citation2000, p. 84.
34Yin, “STS Related Education in China,” Citation1991, p. 11.
35Li, Gong cheng lun li xue gai lun [Introduction to Engineering Ethics], Citation2008.
36Li, Gong cheng zhe xue yin lun [Introduction to Engineering Philosophy], Citation2002.
37Yin, Wang, and Li, Gong cheng zhe xue [Engineering Philosophy], 2007.
38Xiao, Gong cheng lun li xue [Engineering Ethics], Citation1999.
39Vesilind and Gunn, Gong cheng, lun li yu huan jing [Engineering, Ethics, and Environment], Citation2003.
40Harris et al., Gong cheng lun li [Engineering Ethics], Citation2006.
41Du and Li, “Juan shou yu” [Inaugural Statement], Citation2004, p. vi.
43Editors, “Fa kan ci” [Foreword], Citation2009, p.3.
42In vol. 1, for instance, there is Li Sanhu's article on “Professional Responsibility or Common Values: A Holistic Explication of Engineering Ethics Issues.” In vol. 2, Luo Lingling and Wang Jian introduce the methodology of “post occupancy evaluation” into civil engineering design to improve public engagement. In vol. 3, Cui Hailing analyzes the Songhua River water pollution accident mainly from the perspectives of business ethics, organizational studies, and political culture.
44Xiao, “Cong kui bei ke da qiao dao da de wen hua cheng yin kan gong cheng wen hua de jia zhi” [Value of Engineering Culture Viewing from the Cultural Cause of Collapse of Quebec Bridge], Citation2006.
45More information at its official website: http://www.wiselab.cn.
46Davis, “Zhong guo gong cheng zhi ye he yi ke neng” [How is a Profession of Engineering in China Possible], Citation2008.
47Cao and Su, “Zhong guo zhu ce gong cheng shi zhi du he gong cheng she tuan zhang cheng de lun li yi shi kao cha” [Study of Professional Code of Ethics Based on an Investigation into Bylaws of Registered Professional Engineer and Constitution of Engineering Society in China], Citation2007.
48The Chinese Academy of Engineering et al., Declaration on Engineering Ethics, Nov. 1, 2004.
49Pfister, “Hermeneutics,” Citation2006.
50Kong, “Xian dai gong cheng, ze ren lun li yu shi jian zhi hui de xiang du” [Modern Engineering, Ethics of Responsibilities Concerning Engineering and Its Dimension of phronesis], Citation2006.
51Zhu, “Gong cheng huo dong de lun li wen ti” [Ethical Problems in Engineering Activities], Citation2006.
52Li, “Guan yu gong cheng lun li xue de ruo gan li lun wen ti” [Some Theoretical Issues in Engineering Ethics], Citation2006.
53Harbermas, Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action, Citation1995.
54Wang, Zhong guo ke ji lun li shi gang [Outline History of Science and Technology Ethics in China], Citation2006.
55Wang and Zhu, “Dao and Phronesis,” Citation2009.
56Heated debates and controversies around these cases mainly could be found at the website of the “New Threads” (http://www.xys.org) — a renowned open and public forum on scientific misconduct, science communication, and public participation of science. Other references may also be found from a Chinese quarterly, Journal of Engineering Studies, edited by Li Bocong.
57An appropriate example is the long-term controversy around constructing a dam on the Nujiang River. The people who live by Nujiang River are national minorities who want to preserve both the natural (biodiversity and natural ecology) and human (ethnic rituals, customs, etiquettes, and relations with natural world) environments as their living conditions. In contrast, engineers are optimistic about the outcomes of constructing the dam which they think will improve residents' economy and address the national natural resources challenges. Furthermore, political activists argue that the fundamental concern is the will of local residents, that is, whether they are happy to be immigrants within their own country.
58Three useful representatives of this literature are Stephen C. Angle's Sagehood: The Contemporary Siginificance of Neo-Confucian Philosophy (Citation2009) and Donald J. Munro's A Chinese Ethics for the New Century (Citation2005) and Ethics in Action: Workable Guidelines for Private and Public Choices (Citation2008).