Truthful Non-Deceptive Advertising Obligation Invoked in Business Card Context
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/128#Truthful_Non-Deceptive_Advertising_Obligation_Invoked_in_Business_Card_Context
Properties
Instance of
HonestyinProfessionalRepresentations
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#HonestyinProfessionalRepresentations
Applied to
Business card advertising practices generally
Engineer A Multi-Jurisdiction Business Card Presenter
Balancing with
Antitrust-Constrained Ethics Code Scope Principle
Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition
Concrete expression
The Board identifies truthfulness and non-deception as the primary ethical standard governing how engineers represent themselves through advertising and business cards, requiring that all such communications avoid misleading impressions about licensure status
Confidence
0.92
Importance
high
Interpretation
In the business card context, the honesty obligation requires not merely literal accuracy but the overall impression conveyed — a card that omits address information or fails to identify licensure states may be technically incomplete rather than false, but still violates the spirit of the honesty obligation
Invoked by
NSPE Board of Ethical Review
Tension resolution
The Board resolves the tension by focusing on deception as the operative harm: advertising is ethically permissible as long as it is truthful and non-deceptive, regardless of its commercial character
Source Evidence
Source text
a fundamental principle is that such advertising must be conducted in a manner that is truthful and not misleading or deceptive
Text references
a fundamental principle is that such advertising must be conducted in a manner that is truthful and not misleading or deceptive
such activities must conform to state registration laws and rules of practice
the engineer's obligation is not just to satisfy the letter but also the spirit of the Code, consistent with upholding the dignity and integrity of the profession
TTL
@prefix case128: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/128#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case128:Truthful_Non-Deceptive_Advertising_Obligation_Invoked_in_Business_Card_Context a proeth:HonestyinProfessionalRepresentations,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Truthful Non-Deceptive Advertising Obligation Invoked in Business Card Context" ;
proeth:appliedto "Business card advertising practices generally",
"Engineer A Multi-Jurisdiction Business Card Presenter" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Antitrust-Constrained Ethics Code Scope Principle",
"Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The Board identifies truthfulness and non-deception as the primary ethical standard governing how engineers represent themselves through advertising and business cards, requiring that all such communications avoid misleading impressions about licensure status" ;
proeth:confidence "0.92" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "128" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-28T22:02:21.234939+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "128" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-28T22:02:21.234939+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "In the business card context, the honesty obligation requires not merely literal accuracy but the overall impression conveyed — a card that omits address information or fails to identify licensure states may be technically incomplete rather than false, but still violates the spirit of the honesty obligation" ;
proeth:invokedby "NSPE Board of Ethical Review" ;
proeth:principleclass "Honesty in Professional Representations" ;
proeth:sourcetext "a fundamental principle is that such advertising must be conducted in a manner that is truthful and not misleading or deceptive" ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The Board resolves the tension by focusing on deception as the operative harm: advertising is ethically permissible as long as it is truthful and non-deceptive, regardless of its commercial character" ;
proeth:textreferences "a fundamental principle is that such advertising must be conducted in a manner that is truthful and not misleading or deceptive",
"such activities must conform to state registration laws and rules of practice",
"the engineer's obligation is not just to satisfy the letter but also the spirit of the Code, consistent with upholding the dignity and integrity of the profession" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 128 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-28T22:14:48.657367"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 128 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
128
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-28T22:02:21.234939+00:00
First case
128
Generated
2026-02-28T22:02:21.234939+00:00
Attributed to
Case 128 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-28T22:14:48.657367
Generated by
ProEthica Case 128 Extraction