Page 46 - Annales EH 1998-2018

FACTA UNIVERSITATIS
Series: Working and Living Environmental Protection Vol. 2, N 5, 2005, pp. 455 - 463
o
ECO-HUMANIST ORIENTATION OF ENGINEERING

EDUCATION AND ENGINEERING ETHICS

Received June 2, 2005 UDC 504:070.11.17
Vesna Nikolić, Vesna Miltojević

Faculty of Occupational Safety, 18000 Niš, Čarnojevića 10, Serbia and Montenegro

Abstract. Keeping in mind the beliefs of our numerous contemporaries that we are living
in a society of high technological, social and ecological risks, the authors point to both
the positive and negative consequences of technical and technological development, and,
in that context, the need for an eco-humanization of engineering education. The specific
feature of the eco-humanist orientation lies exactly in its universality; it implies an
attitude towards nature, man, work and, most of all, Life as a general value. Relating to
this, an engineer's moral responsibility is coupled with such personal qualities as the
ability of predicting more immediate and further consequences of one's activities, as well
as the possession of such merits as prediction and risk prevention, self-control, a critical
attitude towards one's own self, others, etc. Voluntary adherence to the moral
requirements, related to an engineer's professional activities, assumes a developed belief
in the need for such behavior, instead of the fear of possible punishment and condemnation
by others. The building-up of engineering ethics and the moral responsibility as its
backbone, assumes the need for a complex and holistic approach to the professional
education of the engineers which is, in practice, contrary to traditional (pragmatic)
education. Therefore, the authors of this paper think that it would not be pretentious to
consider the reform of engineering education as the fundamental issue of the future, that
is, as the most significant issue of the society's development without prejudice, political
bias and outdated ways of thinking.
Key Words: Engineering, Eco-humanization of Education, Engineering Ethics,
Sustainable Development

INTRODUCTION
The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries are marked by the development of
science which is itself considered as the cause of the greatest quantitative and qualitative
changes in history. To paraphrase F. Mayor, not at any moment has knowledge with its
most rational forms in the shape of scientific findings stopped advancing and improving

EKOHUMANISTIČKA ORIJENTACIJA TEHNIČKOG
OBRAZOVANJA I ETIKA INŽENJERA

Vesna Nikolić, Vesna Miltojević

Imajući u vidu stavove brojnih savremenika da živimo u društvu tehnološkog, socijalnog i
ekološkog rizika, autori ukazuju na pozitivne i negativne posledice tehničko-tehnološkog razvoja i
u tom kontekstu na potrebu ekohumanizacije tehničkog obrazovanja. Specifičnost ekohumanističke
orijentacije, upravo, je u njenoj univerzalnosti; podrazumeva odnos prema prirodi, čoveku, radu, a
pre svega Životu kao opštoj vrednosti. S tim u vezi moralna odgovornost inženjera je povezana sa
takvim ličnim kvalitetima, kao što su sposobnost predviđanja bližih i daljih posledica svojih
aktivnosti, prognoze i predupređivanja rizika, samokontrole, kritički odnos prema sebi, drugima
itd. Dobrovoljno pridržavanje moralnih zahteva, vezanih za profesionalno delovanje inženjera,
pretpostavlja razvijeno ubeđenje u neophodnost takvog postupanja, a ne zbog straha od moguće
kazne i osude drugih. Izgrađivanje etike inženjera i moralne odgovornosti kao njenog stožera
predodređuje potrebu kompleksnog, holističkog pristupa profesionalnom obrazovanju ovih
kadrova, suprotstavljenom u praksi tradicionalnom (pragmatičnom) pristupu. Stoga, autori ovog
rada, smatraju da ne bi bilo pretenciozno da se reforma tehničkog obrazovanja razmotri kao
temeljno pitanje budućnosti, odnosno kao najznačajnije pitanje razvoja društva, bez predrasuda,
političke pristrasnosti i zastarelih načina mišljenja.
Ključne reči: tehnika, ekohumanizacija obrazovanja, inženjerska etika, održivi razvoj