page_title: Engineering ethics
section_title: The 18th century and growing concern
hierarchical_section_title: Engineering ethics / Background and origins / The 18th century and growing concern
caption_attribution_description: English: Original Tay Bridge before the collapse, seen from the north
context_page_description: Engineering ethics is the field of system of moral principles that apply to the practice of engineering. The field examines and sets the obligations by engineers to society, to their clients, and to the profession. As a scholarly discipline, it is closely related to subjects such as the philosophy of science, the philosophy of engineering, and the ethics of technology.
context_section_description: As engineering rose as a distinct profession during the 19th century, engineers saw themselves as either independent professional practitioners or technical employees of large enterprises. There was considerable tension between the two sides as large industrial employers fought to maintain control of their employees.
  In the United States growing professionalism gave rise to the development of four founding engineering societies: The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) (1851), the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) (1884), the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) (1880), and the American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME) (1871). ASCE and AIEE were more closely identified with the engineer as learned professional, where ASME, to an extent, and AIME almost entirely, identified with the view that the engineer is a technical employee.
  Even so, at that time ethics was viewed as a personal rather than a broad professional concern.
caption: The first Tay Bridge collapsed in 1879. At least sixty were killed.
exif: {}