II4470 IT Ethics & Law

Ethics and Ethical Theories

Herman T. Tavani, Ethics and Technology,
Chapter 2, Wiley, 2004.
 Morality and moral systems

Rules of conduct
Rules for individuals
Rules for social policies
Principles of evaluation
 Justifying rules for moral systems
Religion teachings of religious leaders
Philosophical ethics appeals to reason
Law codes determined by constitutions
and legislation
 Discussion stoppers

People disagree on solutions.

They also agree on many things.
Who am I to judge?
Sometimes we have to make judgments.
Ethics is a private matter.
Morality is essentially a public system.
Morality is a matter for individual cultures.
Do in Rome as the Romans do.
 Why ethical theories are needed

Follow the golden rule.

Doesnt cover when others have different
desires.
Follow your own conscience.
Some people think it all right to fly airplanes
into towers.
 Consequence based ethical theories

Bentham (1748-1832) and Mill (1806-

1873)
What results from an act
The ends justify the means
Principle of social utility measured by the
resulting amount of happiness
 Utilitarianism

Act utilitarianism Act is good if it results

in the greatest good for the greatest
number.
What happens to minority?
Rule utilitarianism Act is good if it comes
from following rules that bring good to
greatest number.
Should we base ethics on happiness and
pleasure?
 Duty-based ethical theories
Deontological theories
Kant (1724-1804) Duties and obligations
that people have to one another.
People have rational natures
People should never be treated as means
to the ends of others
Each individual has the same moral worth
as every other.
 Rule deontology
Kants categorical imperative
Rules that all individuals should be treated
as ends in themselves and not means to
an end.
Rules that can be universally binding for
all people.
One person or group should not be
privileged over all others.
 Act deontology

Ross (1930) - Problem if two conflicting moral

duties
When conflict, consider individual situations
Prima facie (self-evident) duties.
Honesty, justice, helpfulness
Actual duty What to do when have conflicts.
Use rational intuitionism.
Weigh evidence to decide course of action in
particular case
 Contract-based ethical theories

Hobbes(1588-1679) Premoral state

state of nature where all free to do as like
People establish formal legal code
In each persons self-interest to develop
system with rules
Objections Depends only on formal legal
rules
Difference between doing no harm and
doing good.
 Rights-based contract theories

Jefferson (1776) and Aquinas (1225-1274)

Natural rights or inalienable and self-evident
rights
Legal rights positive rights and negative
rights
Negative rights
Privacy, no interference in right to vote
Positive rights
Education (in US through 12th grade)
 Character-based ethical theories
Virtue ethics - Plato (427?-327 BCE) and Aristotle (384-
322 BCE)
Development of good character traits and habits
Be a moral person rather than just follow rules
Agent-oriented rather than action or rule-oriented
Develop character traits such as kindness, truthfulness,
honesty, trustworthiness, helpfulness, generosity, and
justice
More likely to work in homogeneous societies rather than
our pluralistic one
Consequences often should be taken into account
 Single comprehensive theory
Rawls (1971) and Moor (1999) Just-Consequentialist
Theory
Start with core values Do no harm
Support justice, rights, and duties Do your duty
Settle conflicts two steps
Consider situation impartially without regard to specific case
choice between ethical vs. unethical policies
Consider consequences of specific case choice between better
vs. worse policies
Consider whether problem is disagreement about facts
rather than value differences
 Moors ethical framework

Deliberate from an impartial point of view

Does it cause any unnecessary harm?
Does it support individual rights, duties?
Select the best policy from the set
Weigh the good and bad consequences
Distinguish between disagreements about
facts vs. disagreements about values