Intern Epistemic Humility Escalation Obligation Invoked By Engineer Intern D Policy Conflict
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/58#Intern_Epistemic_Humility_Escalation_Obligation_Invoked_By_Engineer_Intern_D_Policy_Conflict
Properties
Instance of
InternEpistemicHumilityandMaterialityDeferenceObligation
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#InternEpistemicHumilityandMaterialityDeferenceObligation
Applied to
Conflict between Engineer W's directive and DOT cost-allocation policy
Balancing with
Faithful Agent Obligation Within Ethical Limits
Subordinate Complicity Prohibition in Unlicensed or Incapacitated Supervision
Concrete expression
Engineer Intern D, upon receiving Engineer W's indirect directive to revise the policy-compliant design, bears an obligation to escalate the conflict between the directive and DOT policy to appropriate supervisory or ethics channels above Engineer W, rather than either silently complying or unilaterally refusing without escalation
Confidence
0.88
Importance
high
Interpretation
The intern's epistemic humility obligation — which normally requires deference to supervisory judgment on questions of materiality — does not require deference when the supervisor's directive clearly conflicts with an unambiguous mandatory policy; in such cases, the obligation transforms into a duty to escalate the conflict to appropriate authority above the supervisor
Invoked by
Engineer Intern D DOT Highway Project Engineer Intern Under Improper Direction
Tension resolution
The intern should escalate the policy conflict to appropriate authority above Engineer W rather than either complying with the improper directive or unilaterally refusing without seeking guidance
Source Evidence
Source text
Engineer W delegates the project to Engineer Intern D, who is about to sit for the PE exam.
Text references
Engineer W conveys to Engineer Intern D in an indirect way that the design should be revised so that the old water main is impacted.
Engineer W delegates the project to Engineer Intern D, who is about to sit for the PE exam.
State DOT policy unambiguously requires that only unavoidable utility conflicts will be paid for as part of highway projects.
TTL
@prefix case58: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/58#> .
@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#> .
case58:Intern_Epistemic_Humility_Escalation_Obligation_Invoked_By_Engineer_Intern_D_Policy_Conflict a proeth:InternEpistemicHumilityandMaterialityDeferenceObligation,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Intern Epistemic Humility Escalation Obligation Invoked By Engineer Intern D Policy Conflict" ;
proeth:appliedto "Conflict between Engineer W's directive and DOT cost-allocation policy" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Faithful Agent Obligation Within Ethical Limits",
"Subordinate Complicity Prohibition in Unlicensed or Incapacitated Supervision" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer Intern D, upon receiving Engineer W's indirect directive to revise the policy-compliant design, bears an obligation to escalate the conflict between the directive and DOT policy to appropriate supervisory or ethics channels above Engineer W, rather than either silently complying or unilaterally refusing without escalation" ;
proeth:confidence "0.88" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "58" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-25T21:50:17.420916+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "58" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-25T21:50:17.420916+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "The intern's epistemic humility obligation — which normally requires deference to supervisory judgment on questions of materiality — does not require deference when the supervisor's directive clearly conflicts with an unambiguous mandatory policy; in such cases, the obligation transforms into a duty to escalate the conflict to appropriate authority above the supervisor" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer Intern D DOT Highway Project Engineer Intern Under Improper Direction" ;
proeth:principleclass "Intern Epistemic Humility and Materiality Deference Obligation" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Engineer W delegates the project to Engineer Intern D, who is about to sit for the PE exam." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The intern should escalate the policy conflict to appropriate authority above Engineer W rather than either complying with the improper directive or unilaterally refusing without seeking guidance" ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineer W conveys to Engineer Intern D in an indirect way that the design should be revised so that the old water main is impacted.",
"Engineer W delegates the project to Engineer Intern D, who is about to sit for the PE exam.",
"State DOT policy unambiguously requires that only unavoidable utility conflicts will be paid for as part of highway projects." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 58 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-25T22:07:12.200925"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 58 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
58
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-02-25T21:50:17.420916+00:00
First case
58
Generated
2026-02-25T21:50:17.420916+00:00
Attributed to
Case 58 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-25T22:07:12.200925
Generated by
ProEthica Case 58 Extraction