Domain-Specific Principle
Class
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#DomainSpecificPrinciple
Class Hierarchy
- Thing
- ↳ entity (bfo)
- ↳ continuant (bfo)
- ↳ generically dependent continuant (bfo)
- ↳ information content entity (iao)
- ↳ directive information entity (iao)
- ↳ Principle (proethica-core)
- ↳ Domain-Specific Principle
- ↳ Corrective Action Monitoring Principle
- ↳ Environmental Law Compliance Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Environmental Stewardship Principle
- ↳ Gratuitous Services Prohibition Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Independent Review Principle
- ↳ Jurisdictional Licensure Compliance Principle
- ↳ Methodological Consistency Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Non-Engineering Expert Services Principle
- ↳ Peer Review Cooperation Principle
- ↳ Professional Judgment Primacy Principle
- ↳ Public Funds Stewardship Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Responsible Charge Principle
- ↳ Review Adequacy Principle
Definition
A principle particular to professional domain contexts that bridges general ethics to specific technical practices (BFO: generically dependent continuant)
Examples: Environmental Stewardship (engineering), Patient Autonomy (medicine), Academic Freedom (education). These address domain-specific ethical challenges.
Definition source
- Prem (2023). From ethical AI frameworks to tools: a review of approaches. AI and Ethics 3(3): 699-716 (doi:10.1007/s43681-023-00258-9).
Mappings & provenance
source
Property Structure
1 · Object and Data Properties
rdfs:domain on this class or ancestor
| Property | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
| establishedBy inherited | CodeProvision | Indicates which code provision establishes this ethical concept. |
| invokedBy inherited | Agent | Relates a Principle to the Agent(s) that invoke it in the case scenario (the parties who appeal to the principle to justify or evaluate conduct). May name several agents. |
2 · Definitional Attributes
SHACL definitional shape
| Attribute | Property (sh:path) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| principle kind | principleCategory | The controlled principle kind, which drives the four-kind subClassOf typing: FundamentalEthicalPrinciple, ProfessionalVirtuePrinciple, RelationalPrinciple, DomainSpecificPrinciple. The canonical leaf label becomes the rdf:type; the category is a routing input, not stored as a literal. |
| extensional cases | extensionalCases | Class-level prior cases that instantiate the principle (McLaren extensional grounding); an optional class-mint field. |
3 · Bearer Attributes
SHACL property shape
individual data
| Attribute | Property (sh:path) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| interpretation | interpretation | Per-case reading of what the principle requires in this situation (a defeasibility-pipeline source field). |
| concrete expression | concreteExpression | How the principle is concretely expressed in the case (a defeasibility-pipeline source field). |
| applied to | appliedTo | What the principle is applied to in the case (the situation or party it bears on). |
| balancing with | balancingWith | The competing principle or value this principle is balanced against in the case, recorded as a literal; extraction records the tension but asserts no defeat or precedence, and the defeasibility edges are materialized by a separate pass from this field. |
| tension resolution | tensionResolution | How the case resolves the tension involving this principle (a defeasibility-pipeline source field). |
| invoked by | invokedBy | The agent who invokes the principle, via the P->Agent invokedBy edge (resolved to a case Agent by embedding shortlist + LLM select; a Board-pattern invoking party resolves deterministically to the case-scoped NSPE Board of Ethical Review Agent). Range: Agent. |
4 · Referenced By
rdfs:range on this class or ancestor
| From | Property | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Action | guidedByPrinciple inherited | Relates an action to a principle that directs it. The principle supplies the value the action is taken to serve. |
| Code Provision | establishes inherited | Relates a code provision to the ethical concepts (principles, obligations, constraints) it establishes or defines. |
| Obligation | derivedFromPrinciple inherited | Relates an obligation to the principle or principles it operationalizes. The obligation gives concrete directive force to the more abstract value the principle expresses (Dennis et al. 2016). |
| Role | adheresToPrinciple inherited | Relates a role to principles that guide its conduct; the role-relative applicability edge of the R->P->O chain (the role determines which principles apply to conduct in that standing). |
Subclasses 9
Corrective Action Monitoring Principle
The value that a professional monitors a hazardous or deficient condition through to the completion of corrective action... Environmental Stewardship Principle
The domain-specific principle in engineering requiring consideration of environmental impact and sustainability (BFO: ge... Independent Review Principle
The value that a professional does not certify or approve their own work in a capacity meant to provide independent over... Jurisdictional Licensure Compliance Principle
The value that a professional practices only within the jurisdictions and license scope for which the professional is au... Non-Engineering Expert Services Principle
The value governing an engineer who provides expert services outside engineering, that such services not trade on engine... Peer Review Cooperation Principle
The value that an engineer cooperates with the peer review of another's work; the confidentiality of the reviewed materi... Professional Judgment Primacy Principle
The value that a tool or technology does not substitute for the professional judgment and competence the work requires. Responsible Charge Principle
The value that an engineer in responsible charge exercises actual direct control and personal supervision over the work ... Review Adequacy Principle
The value that a professional reviews work in sufficient depth to take responsibility for its correctness before relying...
The value that a professional monitors a hazardous or deficient condition through to the completion of corrective action... Environmental Stewardship Principle
The domain-specific principle in engineering requiring consideration of environmental impact and sustainability (BFO: ge... Independent Review Principle
The value that a professional does not certify or approve their own work in a capacity meant to provide independent over... Jurisdictional Licensure Compliance Principle
The value that a professional practices only within the jurisdictions and license scope for which the professional is au... Non-Engineering Expert Services Principle
The value governing an engineer who provides expert services outside engineering, that such services not trade on engine... Peer Review Cooperation Principle
The value that an engineer cooperates with the peer review of another's work; the confidentiality of the reviewed materi... Professional Judgment Primacy Principle
The value that a tool or technology does not substitute for the professional judgment and competence the work requires. Responsible Charge Principle
The value that an engineer in responsible charge exercises actual direct control and personal supervision over the work ... Review Adequacy Principle
The value that a professional reviews work in sufficient depth to take responsibility for its correctness before relying...
Used in cases 12
Case ontologies that instantiate this class or one of its base-ontology descendants. Computed from each individual's type, so the list stays current as cases are extracted. The originating case is shown under Extraction details.
Case 4 Case 6 Case 7 Case 14 Case 16 Case 56 Case 71 Case 76 Case 85 Case 86 Case 103 Case 121@prefix core: <http://proethica.org/ontology/core#> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix iao: <http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/IAO_> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix pcsh: <http://proethica.org/shapes/core#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix sh: <http://www.w3.org/ns/shacl#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
proeth:DomainSpecificPrinciple a owl:Class ;
rdfs:label "Domain-Specific Principle"@en ;
iao:0000115 "A principle particular to professional domain contexts that bridges general ethics to specific technical practices (BFO: generically dependent continuant)"@en ;
iao:0000119 "Prem (2023). From ethical AI frameworks to tools: a review of approaches. AI and Ethics 3(3): 699-716 (doi:10.1007/s43681-023-00258-9)." ;
dcterms:source <https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-023-00258-9> ;
rdfs:comment "Examples: Environmental Stewardship (engineering), Patient Autonomy (medicine), Academic Freedom (education). These address domain-specific ethical challenges."@en ;
rdfs:subClassOf core:Principle ;
skos:changeNote "2026-07-06: Segun 2021 (Critically engaging the ethics of AI for a global audience, Ethics and Information Technology 23(2): 99-105) removed from the definition sources after a verify-or-drop check against the full text. The editorial argues for culturally inclusive AI ethics (Western versus non-Western value systems, epistemic injustice); its single domain occurrence means the theoretical rather than the practical, and professional contexts and operationalization occur nowhere in it, so it does not ground a class about professional domain contexts. Prem 2023 remains the sole definition source; the vocabulary of Prem (specific context, domain ethics, intended purpose) covers the class, and the definition sentence attributes only him."@en ;
skos:definition "Domain-specific principles bridge general ethical guidance to particular professional contexts. As identified by Prem (2023), these principles face inherent challenges in operationalization but remain essential for contextual guidance. They are grounded through industry-specific cases and technical standards applications."@en .
pcsh:CaseAnnotationShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Shared per-case annotation schema (all nine components)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "The cross-component annotation fields on committed case individuals: proeth:confidence (extraction confidence, decimal; all components except Action, whose Step-3 contract carries no confidence field), proeth:textReferences (verbatim supporting quotes, universal), proeth-prov sourceText (the source snippet, on the Step-1/2 provenance layers; Step-3 A/E individuals ground via textReferences only), and the involvement gloss (proeth:caseInvolvement on role individuals, proeth:caseContext on obligation, capability, and constraint individuals). Values are per-individual; the fields do not individuate any type."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "Extraction confidence for this individual (0 to 1)." ;
sh:name "confidence" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:confidence ],
[ sh:description "Verbatim case quotes supporting this individual." ;
sh:name "text references" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path proeth:textReferences ],
[ sh:description "How this individual figures in the case narrative (role individuals; the same text is routed into rdfs:comment)." ;
sh:name "case involvement" ;
sh:order 3 ;
sh:path proeth:caseInvolvement ],
[ sh:description "Grounding context in this case (obligation, capability, and constraint individuals)." ;
sh:name "case context" ;
sh:order 4 ;
sh:path proeth:caseContext ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Action,
core:Capability,
core:Constraint,
core:Event,
core:Obligation,
core:Principle,
core:Resource,
core:Role,
core:State .
pcsh:PrincipleDefinitionShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Principle definition schema (type-level, descriptive, field contract)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "What individuates a principle TYPE: its canonical kind (drives the four-kind subClassOf typing; the canonical leaf becomes the rdf:type) and the extensional cases that ground it (McLaren). The five per-case narrative literals and the invokedBy edge are per-individual and now declared on PrinciplePropertyShape, mirroring the RoleDefinitionShape/ProfessionalRolePropertyShape split so the {{ principle_schema }} prompt separates the type judgment from what the case supplies. Descriptive only (no validation result); principle_category is a routing input, not stored as a literal."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "The controlled principle kind, which drives the four-kind subClassOf typing: FundamentalEthicalPrinciple, ProfessionalVirtuePrinciple, RelationalPrinciple, DomainSpecificPrinciple. The canonical leaf label becomes the rdf:type; the category is a routing input, not stored as a literal." ;
sh:name "principle kind" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:principleCategory ],
[ sh:description "Class-level prior cases that instantiate the principle (McLaren extensional grounding); an optional class-mint field." ;
sh:name "extensional cases" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path proeth:extensionalCases ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Principle .
pcsh:PrinciplePropertyShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Principle per-case schema (individual data, non-definitional)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "What a principle INDIVIDUAL is described by in a specific case: the five narrative literals the defeasibility pipeline consumes and the agent that invokes it. These do NOT individuate the principle TYPE (that is PrincipleDefinitionShape); their values are per-case, asserted on the individual. Descriptive only."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "Per-case reading of what the principle requires in this situation (a defeasibility-pipeline source field)." ;
sh:name "interpretation" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:interpretation ],
[ sh:description "How the principle is concretely expressed in the case (a defeasibility-pipeline source field)." ;
sh:name "concrete expression" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path proeth:concreteExpression ],
[ sh:description "What the principle is applied to in the case (the situation or party it bears on)." ;
sh:name "applied to" ;
sh:order 3 ;
sh:path proeth:appliedTo ],
[ sh:description "The competing principle or value this principle is balanced against in the case, recorded as a literal; extraction records the tension but asserts no defeat or precedence, and the defeasibility edges are materialized by a separate pass from this field." ;
sh:name "balancing with" ;
sh:order 4 ;
sh:path proeth:balancingWith ],
[ sh:description "How the case resolves the tension involving this principle (a defeasibility-pipeline source field)." ;
sh:name "tension resolution" ;
sh:order 5 ;
sh:path proeth:tensionResolution ],
[ sh:description "The agent who invokes the principle, via the P->Agent invokedBy edge (resolved to a case Agent by embedding shortlist + LLM select; a Board-pattern invoking party resolves deterministically to the case-scoped NSPE Board of Ethical Review Agent). Range: Agent." ;
sh:name "invoked by" ;
sh:order 6 ;
sh:path core:invokedBy ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Principle .