ABSTRACT
The distinction Taft Broome makes between western virtue theories and virtues of the Mutumin Kiri rests on the communal quality of the latter. Broome defines "an 'ethically' exigent decision making situation as one in which decision maker seeks to make his or her decision with or without a defensible ethical rationale, but without loss of collegial status among other engineers." While a noble concept, the notion of a heroic journey in engineering is often pushed too far, resulting in rationalization of engineering failures as inevitable features of a learning curve, as in the case of Samuel Florrnan's 20 "tragic hero". In Broome's defense he clearly intends that a heroic journey be construed as an internal transformation, a rite of passage to collegial acceptance, rather than the metaphor for technological progress that Florman seems to suggest. A solution to this dilemma can perhaps be found by extending moral imagination, or Broome's heuristics, to include perspectives of parties other than Broome's colleagues.
