Ethics and the UN Sustainable Development Goals: The Case for Comprehensive Engineering

Jeroen van den Hoven
2016 Science and Engineering Ethics  
In the twenty-first century, the urgent problems the world is facing (the UN Sustainable Development Goals) are increasingly related to vast and intricate 'systems of systems', which comprise both socio-technical and eco-systems. In order for engineers to adequately and responsibly respond to these problems, they cannot focus on only one technical or any other aspect in isolation, but must adopt a wider and multidisciplinary perspective of these systems, including an ethical and social
more » ... ve. Engineering curricula should therefore focus on what we call 'comprehensive engineering'. Comprehensive engineering implies ethical coherence, consilience of scientific disciplines, and cooperation between parties.
doi:10.1007/s11948-016-9862-2 pmid:28028778 fatcat:3mcpnobqqfaatkutpggqktrs7u