Right and Duty Ethics | Engineering Ethics (2024)

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Right ethics are ethics that most important to human rights. According to the right ethics theory, human rights is the ultimate appeal and it should be respected. Human rights are entirely different from legal rights.

• A few examples of human rights are freedom of speech, freedom of expression and right to privacy.

• Right ethics also applies to engineer. In the engineering code of ethics, we give paramount importance to the safety, health, and welfare of the public

• Rights not to be injured by dangerous products.

• Rights to privacy.

• Rights to receive benefits through a fair and honest exchange in a free market place.

• Liberty rights: Liberty rights are the rights which as the name suggests, other people should not interfere with your freedom.
  

• Welfare rights: Welfare rights are the rights with some benefits. It has nothing to do with our freedom.
  

Many of the right ethicists say that both the liberty right and welfare right is important. John Lucke was a right ethicist who focused on liberty rights and thus called libertarian.

Duty ethics and the right ethics are correlated with a slight difference. Duty ethics simply means that these ethics place a duty on others. For example, if we take right to live, in this right we have a right to live but then we are placing a duty on others that they should not kill us. This duty placed on others is known as duty ethics.

This particular approach is known as a deontological approach. So in this approach, we ascertain certain duties and then drive some rights from it. The deontological approach says that duty is the base of ethics.

Immanuel Kant was one of the most popular duty ethicists. He says that all the duties derive from one fundamental duty. And that fundamental duty which he suggests in that respect a person.

Respecting a person means that you will respect their autonomy and all other rights come under this. He also says that duty ethics are universal and that it applies equally to every person and there is no discrimination.

Immanuel Kant had three ideas on duty ethics

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• Universality: it suggests that duty ethics apply to all rational agents or persons.

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• Categorical imperatives: it suggests that rules command whatever is right. These rules are derived from the set of duties. It is so because it is the right way to do it.

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• Absolutism: this idea says that whatever rule you derived from the set of duties there are no exceptions from it. Many ethicists rejected this idea because sometimes there are some duties which have some justified exceptions. These kinds of duties are known as prima facie duties.

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