The Professional Autonomy of Engineers

9320166戴维斯工程师有时声称，他们作为雇员的地位剥夺了他们成为真正专业人士所必需的自主权。 这项研究的目的是提供一个框架，回答这个问题是否以及何时工程师有足够的自主权，在工作场所作为专业人士。 为了提供这个框架，这项研究将把最近对道德自主权的哲学分析带到专业自主权的问题上，将从早期关于工程师在工作场所的自主权的工作中汲取相关材料，以检查那里的专业自主权的条件，并将勾勒出实证研究的计划，这些计划可能建立在这些结果的基础上，以回答有关工程师实际职业自主权的问题。 该研究旨在制定一个立场的专业和自主权，可以通过三个测试：它必须是一致的，在一个大的组织工作;它必须是实证检验;它必须是有用的，在评估不同类型的工作组织是否会阻碍或提高专业自主权。 这项研究有助于三个领域，工程社会学，职业哲学和工程伦理学。 一个更好地发展的专业自主权的概念可能有助于工程和科学伦理学中的其他实际问题。 当前适用于工作场所的道德自主概念既无助于我们理解职业约束的道德含义，也无助于我们理解企业组织和职业责任的普遍一致性。 因为拟议的项目将帮助我们了解工程师的背景下，它应该有助于以及工程师做什么的整体理解。 结果将通过介绍和文章传播。 ***

9320166 Davis Engineers sometimes claim that their status as employees denies them the autonomy necessary to be true professionals. The purpose of this research is to provide a framework for answering the question whether and when engineers have enough autonomy in the workplace to act as professionals. To provide this framework, the research will bring recent philosophical analysis of moral autonomy to bear on the question of professional autonomy, will draw relevant material from earlier work on the autonomy of engineers in the workplace to examine the conditions for professional autonomy there, and will sketch programs of empirical research that might build on these results to answer questions about the actual professional autonomy of engineers. The research aims to develop a position on professions and autonomy that can pass three tests: It must be consistent with working in a large organization; it must be empirically testable: and it must be useful in evaluating whether different kinds of work organization will impede or enhance professional autonomy. This research contributes to three fields, the sociology of engineering, the philosophy of professions, and engineering ethics. A better developed conception of professional autonomy may help with other practical questions in the ethics of engineering and science. Current conceptions of moral autonomy applied to the workplace do not help us to understand either the moral implications of professional constraints or the general consistency of corporate organization and professional responsibility. Because the proposed project would help us to understand engineers in context, it should contribute as well to overall understanding of what engineers do. Results will be disseminated through presentations and articles. ***