Confucian Moral Imagination and Ethics Education in Engineering.

Developing moral imagination is a central yet challenging learning outcome for students in professional education programs for fields including engineering. This paper introduces theories of moral imagination in early Confucian ethical thought and explores what implications can be drawn from these t...

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Publicado en:Frontiers of Philosophy in China Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 63 - 80
Autor principal: ZHU Qin
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Higher Education Press Limited Company Mar2020
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Confucian Moral Imagination and Ethics Education in Engineering.
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        au: ZHU Qin
        affil: Division of Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences, Colorado School of Mines, Colorado 80401, USA
      su:
        Imagination
        Engineering ethics
        Education ethics
        Ethics education
        Engineering education
        Professional ethics
      sug:
        subj:
          Imagination
          Engineering ethics
          Education ethics
          Ethics education
          Engineering education
          Professional ethics
      keyword:
        Confucian ethics
        engineering ethics
        ethics education
        moral imagination
        moral psychology
      ab: Developing moral imagination is a central yet challenging learning outcome for students in professional education programs for fields including engineering. This paper introduces theories of moral imagination in early Confucian ethical thought and explores what implications can be drawn from these theories for engineering ethics and professional education. Rather than appealing to pre-determined principles, early Confucians advocated a moral particularism and argued that moral actors need to exercise their imaginations to discern diverse factors and constraints present in moral situations. They need to "extract" from moral situations possible reasons for certain actions. Texts such as the Analects should be read as manuals or logs of decision-making rather than as prescriptive guidance or descriptive anecdotes. The moral actions we take in different situations are influenced by the special roles we play in these situations. The nature of a particular role relationship often evokes feelings and expectations characteristic of that relationship. Cultivating and educating our imaginations allows us to draw on diverse human abilities, assess multiple moral strategies, and identify the most suitable (rather than simply calculating "the best") option that helps to activate our moral selves and grow our relationships with others. Early Confucians proposed a variety of methods for developing moral imaginative capabilities including reflective observation of social interactions, moral thought experiments, analogical extension of familial relations, and the "as-if" rituals. This paper ultimately considers the possible implications of these theories for teaching and learning ethical conduct in engineering, given the increasing interest of the engineering profession in humanitarian engineering and cross-cultural collaboration and the two fields of engineering practice often encompass incomplete knowledge and diverse values.
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    language: English
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