Chapter 9 -- The Distribution of Responsibility in Engineering

Question 1

collective responsibility

Answer 1

the responsibility of a collective of people

Question 2

problem of many hands

Answer 2

the occurrence of the situation in which the collective can be reasonably held morally responsible for an outcome, while none of the individuals can be reasonably held responsible for that outcome

Question 3

distribution of responsibility

Answer 3

the ascription or apportioning of individual responsibilities to various actors

Question 4

moral fairness requirement

Answer 4

the requirement that a distribution of responsibility should be fair

Question 5

moral fairness requirement (passive)

Answer 5

a person should only be held responsible if that person can be held responsible for wrong-doing, casual contribution, forseeability, and freedom of action

Question 6

moral fairness requirement (active)

Answer 6

implying that persons should only be allocated responsibilities that they can live by

Question 7

effectiveness requirement

Answer 7

the moral requirement that states that responsibility should be so distributed that the distribution has the best consequences, or is effective in preventing harm

Question 8

liability

Answer 8

legal responsibility; backward-looking responsibility according to the law; usually related to the obligation to pay a fine or repair or repay damages

Question 9

regulation

Answer 9

a legal tool that can forbid the development, production, or use of certain technological products, but more often it formulates a set of the boundary conditions for the design, production, and use of technologies

Question 10

negligence

Answer 10

not living by certain duties; main condition for legal liability; to prove, usually must be given of a duty owed, a breach of that duty, an injury or damage, and a causal connection between the breach and the injury or damage

Question 11

duty of care

Answer 11

legal obligation to adhere to a reasonable standard of care when performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others

Question 12

strict liability

Answer 12

form of liability that does not require the defendant to be negligent

Question 13

product liability

Answer 13

liability of manufacturers for defects in a product, without the need to prove that those manufacturers acted negligently

Question 14

development risks

Answer 14

risks that could not have been foreseen given the state of scientific and technical knowledge at the time the product was put into circulation

Question 15

corporate liability

Answer 15

liability of a company (corporation) when it is treated as a legal person

Question 16

limited liability

Answer 16

the principle that the liability of shareholders for the corporation’s debts and obligations is limited to the value of their shares

Question 17

hierarchical responsibility model

Answer 17

model in which only the organization’s top level of personnel is held responsible for the actions of (people in) the organization

Question 18

collective responsibility model

Answer 18

the model in which every member of a collective body is held responsible for the actions of the other members of that same collective body

Question 19

individual responsibility model

Answer 19

the model in which each individual is held responsible insofar as he or she meets the conditions for individual responsibility