Tutorial - Working with ethicists: A bestiary

When “[s]cientists, technologists and engineers of all ages, students as well as senior professionals, encounter ethical challenges in their professional and personal lives” [1], it is often helpful to have assistance from an ethicist. But ethicists are no more generic than engineers [2] or scientists [3]. Ethicists come in many forms, not all of which are suitable for domestication. In this short presentation, I will offer a typology of ethicists, their characteristic habits, typical demeanors, and principle uses. Participants will learn how to . identify specific strains of ethicists in the wild as well as the academy; . discriminate the innocuous from the nocuous ethicist; and . approach ethicists with minimal risk of injury to body, mind, or reputation. The presentation will conclude with suggestions on the taming, but not breeding, of ethicists. Although the presenter´s approach is tongue-in-cheek, he believes that the presentation and following open discussion will be of serious use to anyone - especially the technically-oriented - who believes he or she can benefit from instruction from or collaboration with an ethicist. (Collaborating with more than one ethicist is an advanced topic that cannot be covered any convenient time span.) .