Thursday, October 10, 2024 3:30 鈥� 5:00 pm
Jason Matteson, Kansas State University
"Choosing Well and Living Well: How Friendships Matter in Engineering Ethics"
Abstract: Aristotle argues there are three basic types of friendship, namely, friendships of
pleasure, usefulness, and character. He claims that a clear-eyed understanding of
the various types of friendship is central to choosing well and living well. I extend
this general framework to ethics in professional engineering. I argue that there is
a fourth type of friendship, what I call a common values friendship. These friendships are organized around the voluntary pursuit
of some shared values, for instance, those found in a professional field. I argue
having such friendships is uniquely helpful for engineers to reliably choose well.
I also argue for the stronger claim that such friendships are at least partially constitutive
of living a good life for those working in modern engineering fields.