To cover concepts of virtues in professional ethics in engineering

1. VIRTUES[Behavior showing high moral standard]
By
M.Dhilsath Fathima

2. What is a Virtue?
• A State Of Character Or Habit of person.
• Morally Good Habits (Excellence Habit)
• Behavior showing high moral standard
• a good moral quality in a person, or the​ ​ ​ ​
general quality of being morally good​ ​
• Ex:Patience is a virtue

3. VIRTUE THEORY
• Aristotle, an early Greek Thinker/Philosopher
proposed one of the most influential theories
of ethics called Virtue Theory. According to
this theory “virtues” or “morally good habits”
develop only through training and repetition.

4. ARISTOTLE’S
VIRTUE THEORY
• Aristotle: a virtue is a state of character by
which you ‘stand well’ in relation to your
desires, emotions and choices:
– ‘to feel [desires and emotions] at the right times,
with reference to the right objects, towards the
right people, with the right motive, and in the right
way’
• Virtues are traits that are necessary for ‘living
well’.

5. ARISTOTLE’S
VIRTUE THEORY-Cont..
• Just as individuals develop other kinds of
practical abilities through practice and
repetition, so also he argued humans acquire
their moral ability when they are taught and
habituated by their families and
communities to think feel, and behave in
morally appropriate ways.

6. Considerations for Virtues
• The Right Person
• The Right Object
• The Right Amount
• The Right Time
• The Right End
• The Right Way

7. Example of virtues
• Courage, Temperance, Generosity,
Self-control, Honesty, Sociability,
Modesty, and Fairness or Justice are
all virtues.

8. PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY/
TYPES OF VIRTUES
Responsibilities based on
• Self Direction Virtues
• Public Spirited Virtues
• Teamwork Virtues
• Proficiency Virtues

9. SELF DIRECTION VIRTUES
• Making your own decisions and organizing your own​ ​
work rather than being told what to do by managers,​
colleagues, friends.
• Self-direction is a virtue a quality of strength the
development of self responsibility.
• Fundamental virtues in exercising our moral autonomy
and responsibility.
 e.g. self understanding, humility(Humbleness), good moral
judgment, courage, self discipline, perseverance, commitments,
self-respect and dignity .
 e.g. Kindness -Humanity[generosity,nurturance(
care given to someone), care, compassion, altruistic love,
"niceness"]: Doing favors and good deeds for others.

10. PUBLIC SPIRITED VIRTUES
• Focusing on the good of the clients and public
affected by the engineers’ work by . not
directly and intentionally harming others i.e.
‘non-maleficence(do not harm)’.
Ex: Fairness: Treating all people the same according
to notions of fairness and justice; not letting personal
feelings bias decisions about others.
Ex: Leadership: Encouraging a group of which one
is a member to get things done and at the same
maintain time good relations within the group.

11. TEAMWORK VIRTUES
• Enables professionals to work successfully
with others.
E.g. collegiality(cooperative relationship of
colleagues), cooperativeness, the ability to
communicate, respect for authority, loyalty to
employers and leadership qualities.
E.g. Citizenship [social responsibility, loyalty,
teamwork]: Working well as a member of a group or
team; being loyal to the group.

12. PROFICIENCY VIRTUES
• Mastery of one’s Profession that characterize good
engineering practice e.g. competence, diligence
(attentiveness) ,creativity, self-renewal through
continuous education.
Open-mindedness [judgment, critical thinking]:
Thinking things through and examining them from all
sides (Perspective); weighing all evidence fairly.
Creativity [originality, cleverness]: Thinking of novel
and productive ways to conceptualize and do things.