Conditional Proceeding Under Documented Uncertainty Invoked by BER Discussion Section
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/88#Conditional_Proceeding_Under_Documented_Uncertainty_Invoked_by_BER_Discussion_Section
Properties
Instance of
ConditionalProceedingUnderDocumentedUncertainty
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConditionalProceedingUnderDocumentedUncertainty
Applied to
Decision whether to proceed with tidal crossing design without specialized hydrologic analysis
Balancing with
Non-Acquiescence to Client Directive Suppressing Safety Analysis
Public Welfare Paramount
Concrete expression
The BER notes that the outcome might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely — in which case Engineer A might have ethically proceeded while documenting that judgment in writing and noting in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm it. Because Engineer A was not so comfortable, this conditional permission does not apply.
Confidence
0.94
Importance
high
Interpretation
In this context, the conditional proceeding principle establishes the boundary of its own application: it is available only when the engineer is genuinely comfortable that significant harm is unlikely, and it is unavailable when the engineer's professional judgment indicates that significant harm is reasonably likely.
Invoked by
Engineer A Climate Change Impact Evaluating Infrastructure Engineer
Tension resolution
The conditional proceeding permission is unavailable in this case because Engineer A's professional judgment indicates that significant flooding impacts are reasonably likely; the principle therefore resolves in favor of requiring full analysis or withdrawal.
Source Evidence
Source text
The outcome of this case might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable with predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, in which case Engineer A might have ethically been able to proceed while noting both in writing and in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm that judgment.
Text references
The outcome of this case might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable with predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, in which case Engineer A might have ethically been able to proceed while noting both in writing and in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm that judgment.
TTL
@prefix case88: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/88#> .
@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#> .
case88:Conditional_Proceeding_Under_Documented_Uncertainty_Invoked_by_BER_Discussion_Section a proeth:ConditionalProceedingUnderDocumentedUncertainty,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Conditional Proceeding Under Documented Uncertainty Invoked by BER Discussion Section" ;
proeth:appliedto "Decision whether to proceed with tidal crossing design without specialized hydrologic analysis" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Non-Acquiescence to Client Directive Suppressing Safety Analysis",
"Public Welfare Paramount" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The BER notes that the outcome might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely — in which case Engineer A might have ethically proceeded while documenting that judgment in writing and noting in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm it. Because Engineer A was not so comfortable, this conditional permission does not apply." ;
proeth:confidence "0.94" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "88" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-27T14:20:08.457238+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "88" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-27T14:20:08.457238+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "In this context, the conditional proceeding principle establishes the boundary of its own application: it is available only when the engineer is genuinely comfortable that significant harm is unlikely, and it is unavailable when the engineer's professional judgment indicates that significant harm is reasonably likely." ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Climate Change Impact Evaluating Infrastructure Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Conditional Proceeding Under Documented Uncertainty" ;
proeth:sourcetext "The outcome of this case might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable with predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, in which case Engineer A might have ethically been able to proceed while noting both in writing and in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm that judgment." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The conditional proceeding permission is unavailable in this case because Engineer A's professional judgment indicates that significant flooding impacts are reasonably likely; the principle therefore resolves in favor of requiring full analysis or withdrawal." ;
proeth:textreferences "The outcome of this case might have been different had Engineer A been comfortable with predicting that significant public health, safety, and welfare impacts were unlikely, in which case Engineer A might have ethically been able to proceed while noting both in writing and in public statements that more detailed analysis would be required to confirm that judgment." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 88 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-28T10:32:26.862829"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 88 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
88
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-27T14:20:08.457238+00:00
First case
88
Generated
2026-02-27T14:20:08.457238+00:00
Attributed to
Case 88 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-28T10:32:26.862829
Generated by
ProEthica Case 88 Extraction