MORAL AUTONOMY &

CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY

By M.Dhilsath Fathima

MORAL AUTONOMY

(One who gives oneself one’s own law)

Meaning-Autonomy• Self-Governing• Act Independently.• Self-Determining.• Skill/Habit of a person• Rational Thinking

(Thinking Logically/Reasonable thinking/Good Decision Making)

Definition• It is a concept found in moral,political,ethical

philosophy.• the ability to think critically and independently

about moral issues• Apply this moral thinking to situations that

arise in professional engineering practice.• It is concerned with independent attitude of a

person related to moral /ethical issues.• It helps to improve self-determination among

the individuals.

Skills for improving moral autonomy

A person becomes morally autonomous by improving various practical skills:

• Proficiency is recognizing moral problems and issues in engineering.

• Skill in comprehending, clarifying and critically assessing arguments on opposing sides of moral issues.

• Awareness of alternate responses to issues and creative solutions for practical difficulties.

• Increased precision in the use of a common ethical language necessary to express and also defend one’s views adequately.

• They must have the ability to suggest the solutions to moral issues, on the basis of facts. These suggestions must be consistent and must include all the aspects of the problem.

• They must understand the importance of maintaining the moral honesty.

CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY

MEANING• CONSENSUS –AGREEMENTgeneral agreement.Ex: The consensus of the universities is that they

should conduct university exam twice in a year.

• CONTROVERSY-DISAGREEMENT /ArgumentAll individuals will not arrive at same verdict

during their exercising their moral autonomy.

Need of Consensus and Controversy

• The consensus and the controversies are playing the vital roles while considering the moral autonomy.

• When an individual exercises the moral autonomy, he cannot get the same results as others get in applying moral autonomy. Surely there must be some moral differences i.e. the results or verdicts will be of controversy. This kind of disagreements is unavoidable. These disagreements require some tolerances among individuals those who are autonomous, reasonable and responsible.

Relationship between Consensus, Authority

• One major goal of engineering ethics is to promote authority while exercising consensus.

• Consensus concerning the role of authority.

• Ex: Teachers having authority over students and managers having authority over engineers.

• So authority provides framework in which learning ,tolerance , consensus take place.

Another Example-CONSENSUS AND CONTROVERSY

• The conductor of a music orchestra has authority over the musicians and his authority is respected by them by consensus as otherwise the music performance will suffer. Hence the authority and autonomy and consensus are compatible

Example 1- moral dilemma

• The hijacked plane with 200 people is approaching a building with 50,000 people

• Vote! Will you shoot down the plane?• You cannot subscribe to both principles in the

case.• A true moral dilemma

Example 2-Moral Dilemma• For example, suppose one gives a promise to his

friend that he will meet him on the evening of a particular day, but unfortunately on the same day his brother has met with an accident and he has to take him to hospital. The dilemma here consists of a conflict between the duty to keep promise and obligations to his brother. In this situation, to solve his moral problem, he can make a phone call to his friend and make apology for his inability to come. So, from the above it is clear that the duty to keep promise always has two different and conflicting applications.