ABSTRACT

Civil disobedience has stirred controversy for well over two thousand years. Modern technology has introduced some new wrinkles to an old question. One result is that engineers, while performing their jobs as engineers, have a special duty to obey the law. The law expresses the public morality of a community and, as members of that community, individuals have a responsibility to participate in the process of shaping that public morality. Because civil disobedience proclaims basic respect for the law, one is freer to commit civil disobedience when acting as an individual then when one is acting from a position of public trust. An important difference exists between Rosa Parks, who violated segregation laws, and a judge who refuses in court to enforce a law because she thinks it is a bad law. Vast projects involve numerous aspects: production of a medication, for example, involves marketing considerations, employment issues, medical issues, questions of pricing and distribution, and chemical engineering.