ABSTRACT
The same disaster can be explained in terms of bad engineering, bad management and bad ethics. One consequence of taking this more pluralistic approach to explaining disasters is that the place of ethical considerations in explaining disasters is not neglected. The problem was that the end to which engineering design was directed was unethical. Few people would question the relevance of ethical categories in explaining the tragedy of Auschwitz: the ends toward which engineering design was directed were unethical. Engineers, like the rest of us, learn from experience. If they can isolate the engineering factors that explain a disaster, they can do something to prevent similar mistakes in the future. A condition is that the impropriety must have been a contributing cause of the disaster. Exposing engineering problems and attempting to eliminate them can make an important contribution to preventing similar disasters in the future.
