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Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
Department of Computer Science and EngineeringMälardalen University
2007
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
CDT409 LECTURE 1
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Course PreliminariesIdentifying Ethics IssuesBasic Ethical Orientations
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Course Preliminaries
All information about the course at:
http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590
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Course Preliminaries
Presentation of participants Course language is English, for all communication, as
far as possible Communication means: webpage, mail Books? See the web page resources Class Photos – will be made during the course
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Course Preliminaries
Examination forms Taking class notes and discussing the selected topics
in the class. How to take class notes?See http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/success/notes.html
Writing an article on a topic within Professional Ethics
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The Expectations of the Course
Student affiliation……………………………………………………………………..(e.g. PhD Computer Engineering)
What type of learning do you prefer? Lectures? Discussions? Role-play? Self-governed learning? Give a priority list and even percentage for the mixture if possible
……………………………….. ………………………………..……………………………….. ………………………………..(e.g. 70% lectures 20% discussions 5% role play 5 % self-governed learning)
How much time a week are you planning to spend working on Professional Ethics? (This is a 5 points D-level course which means 20 hours a week.With four hours in the class there is 16 hours self study).
……………………………….. ………………………………..
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Course Goals and the Measure of Success
The course will develop a framework on which professional and ethical issues can be analyzed, and build up an awareness of various views of ethical issues as well as professionals ethical rights and responsibilities.
The measure of success is how much new we learn and if we can notice any change in the attitudes (sensitivity) to the problems of professional ethics.
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Planning for the Course Examination
GRADING 7,5 creditsResearch paper (4 credits), class presentation assignment (1credits),
and classnotes (2.5 credits).(Assignment means preparing and leading of in-class activity.Participation means class attendance with class notes).
CLASS ATTENDANCE IS COMPULSORY. (~80% presence is required for the course in total).
RESEARCH PAPERSChoose research paper topic until next week!
See even suggested topics in Cybernetics on the course home page, exam.
Papers are written individually.Topics should be specific for everyone.
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Taking Lecture and Class Notes
At the end of the course you are expected to send me a Word file with the complete class notes for the course, one A4 page for each class meeting [which makes 14 pages in total].
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Planning for the CourseExamples of possible in-class discussions
DiscussionPROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIESCodes of Ethics. Whistle BlowingIn-class activity: CASE STUDIES
DiscussionENVIRONMENTAL ETHICSIn-class activity: CASE STUDIES
DiscussionPRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIESIn-class activity: CASE STUDIES
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Planning for the CourseChoose which in-class activity you would like to lead
DiscussionCOMPUTER GAMES AND ENTERTAINMENTIn-class activity: CASE STUDIES
DiscussionTHE ETHICS OF SAFETY CRITICAL SYSTEMSIn-class activity: CASE STUDIES
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Identifying Moral Issues
Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.Director, The Values Institute
University of San Diego
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Ethics and Morality the Difference
The terms ethics and morality are often used interchangeably - indeed, they usually can mean the same thing, and in casual conversation there isn't a problem with switching between one and the other. However, there is a distinction between them in philosophy!
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Ethics and Morality Etymology
Morality and ethics have same roots, mores which means manner and customs from the Latin and etos which means custom and habits from the Greek.
Robert Louden, Morality and Moral Theory
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Ethics and MoralityWhat are they?
Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to what we would call moral standards and moral conduct while ethics is used to refer to the formal study of those standards and conduct. For this reason, the study of ethics is also often called "moral philosophy."
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Ethics and Morality
Morality: first-order set of beliefs and practices about how to live a good life. The discipline dealing with what is good or bad.
Ethics: a second-order, conscious reflection on the adequacy of our moral beliefs. The discipline dealing with what is good or bad.
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Morality
The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct.
A system of ideas of right and wrong conduct: religious morality; Christian morality.
Virtuous conduct. A rule or lesson in moral conduct.
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Ethics
Philosophers commonly distinguish: descriptive ethics, the factual study of the ethical
standards or principles of a group or tradition;
normative ethics, the development of theories that systematically denominate right and wrong actions;
applied ethics, the use of these theories to form judgments regarding practical cases; and
meta-ethics, careful analysis of the meaning and justification of ethical claims
Source: www.ethicsquality.com/philosophy.html
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ETHICS
Norm Systems
LAW MORAL
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Identifying Moral Issues
Moral concerns are unavoidable in life. They are not always easy to identify and define.
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Professional discussions of ethical issues in journals. We come back to ideas again and again, finding new
meaning in them.
See http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/e/ethics.htm
Ethics as an Ongoing Conversation
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The Moral Issue
What makes something a moral issue?– Content:
• duties, rights, human welfare, suffering, character, etc.– Perspective:
• impartial, compassionate, etc.
The Language of Moral Concerns– Moral issues are characterized by a particular kind of
language—terms such as duty, obligation, right, and good.
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Impartiality and Compassion
Impartiality For many philosophers the moral point of view is characterized
by impartiality, that is, I don’t give my own interest any special weight.– Immanuel Kant– John Stuart Mill
Compassion Yet other philosophers have seen the origin of the moral life to
be in compassion (empathy), feeling for the suffering of other sentient beings.
Josiah Royce: “Such as that is for me, so is it for him, nothing less.”
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Universally Binding Moral obligations, some philosophers maintain, are
universally binding and that is what gives them their distinctive character.
Kant: morality is a matter of categorical imperatives. – Distinguish between hypothetical (a moral
command that is conditional on personal motive or desire), and categorical (unconditional) imperatives.
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Concern for Character
Philosophers from Aristotle onward have seen the primary focus of morality to be character.
Two questions:– What ought I to do? (Kant and Mill)– What kind of person ought I to be? (Aristotle)
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The Focus of Ethics
Ethics as the Evaluation of Other People’s Behavior– We are often eager to pass judgment on others
Ethics as the Search for Meaning and Value in Our Own Lives
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Ethics as the Evaluation of Other People’s Behavior
Ethics often used as a weapon Hypocrisy Possibility of knowing other people The right to judge other people The right to intervene Judging and caring
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Ethics as the Search for Meaning and Value in Our Own Lives
Positive focus Aims at discerning what is good Emphasizes personal responsibility for one’s own life
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What to Expect from a Moral Theory
Functions of theory: Describe Explain Give strength Prescribe Open new possibilities
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What to Expect from a Moral Theory
What is ethics like? Human-centric
Physics– Clear-cut, definitive answers
Engineering– Several possible ways of doing things, many ways
that are wrong
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The Point of Ethical Reflection
Ethics as the evaluation of people’s behavior
Ethics as the search for the meaning of our own lives
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Basic Moral Orientations
Overview
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On What Basis Do We Make Moral Decisions? (1)
Divine Command -- “Do what the sacred book tells you” - the will of God
Utilitarianism -- “Make the world a better place” Virtue Ethics -- “Be a good person” The Ethics of Duty -- “Do your duty” Immanuel Kant -- Categoric imperativ Ethical Egoism -- “Watch out for #1”
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On What Basis Do We Make Moral Decisions? (2)
The Ethics of Natural and Human Rights -- “...all people are created ...with certain unalienable rights”
Social Contract Ethics Moral Reason versus Moral Feeling Evolutionary Ethics
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Divine Command Theories
Being good is equivalent to doing whatever the Bible--or the Qur’an or some other sacred text or source of revelation--tells you to do.
“What is right” equals “What God tells me to do.”
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Utilitarianism Hedonistic utilitarianism: Seeks to reduce
suffering and increase pleasure or happiness
Epicurus (341-270 BC) Greek“We count pleasure as the originating principle and the goal for the blessed life”. (Letter to Menoeceus)
Frances Hutcheson (1694-1747) Irish“The action is best, which procures the greatest happiness for the greatest number; and that worst, which in like manner, occasions misery.” (An Inquiry Concerning Moral Good and Evil, 3.8)
Bentham’s Utilitarian Calculus Mill’s Utilitarianism
“Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote [general] happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of [general] happiness. (Utilitarianism, 2)
http://www.utilitarism.net/ (in Swedish)
John Stuart Mill1806-1873
Jeremy Bentham(1748-1832)
Epicurus (341-270 BC)
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Virtue Ethics One of the oldest moral theories.
Ancient Greek epic poets and playwrights Homer and Sophocles describe the morality of their heroes in terms of virtues and vices.
Plato - cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. Even accepted by early Christian theologians.
Aristotle: The Nichomachean Ethics
Morality is a matter of being a good person, which involves having virtuous character traits.
Seeks to develop individual characterAristotle (384-322 BCE.)
Plato (427-347 BCE)
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The Ethics of Duty
Ethics is about doing your duty. Cicero (stoic): On duties (De Officiis)http://www.stoics.com/cicero_book.html Medieval philosophers:
duties to God, self and others Kant: only moral duties to self and others Samuel von Pufendorf (1632-1694):
moral duties spring from our instinctive drive for survival – we should be sociable in order to survive.
Intuitionism: we don’t logically deduce moral duties, we know them as thy are!
For each duty there is a corresponding virtue.
Immanuel Kant1724-1804
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 - 43) BC
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Immanuel Kant’s Moral Theory
Human reason makes moral demands on our lives
The categorical imperative: Act so that the maxim [determining motive of the will] may be capable of becoming a universal law for all rational beings."
We have moral responsibility to develop our talents Immanuel Kant
1724-1804
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Ethical Egoism Says the only person to look out for is yourself Ayn Rand, The Ethics of Selfishness Well known for her novel, especially Atlas Shrugged
shrug - To raise (the shoulders), especially as a gesture of doubt, disdain, or indifference
Ayn Rand sets forth the moral principles of “Objectivism”, the philosophy that holds that man's life--the life proper to a rational being--as the standard of moral values. It regards altruism as incompatible with man's nature, with the requirements of his survival, and with a free society.
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The Ethics of Rights
The most influential moral notion of the past two centuries
Established minimal conditions of human decency
Human rights: rights that all humans supposedly possess.
natural rights: some rights are grounded in the nature rather than in governments.
moral rights, positive rights, legal rights, civil rights
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The Ethics of Rights
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) right from nature implies a liberty to protect myself from attack in any way that I can.
John Locke (1632-1704) principal natural rights: life, health, liberty and possessions.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
John Locke (1632-1704)
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Moral Reason versus Moral Feeling
Morality is strictly a matter of rational judgment: Samuel Clarke (1675-1729)
Since time of Plato: moral truths exist in a spiritual realm.
Moral truths like mathematical truths are eternal.
Morality is strictly a matter of feeling (emotion): David Hume (1711-1729)
We have a moral sense
Samuel Clarke (1675-1729)
David Hume (1711-1729)
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Evolutionary Ethics
Human social behavior is an extended development of biological evolution.
Evolutionary ethics: moral behavior is that which tends to aid in human survival.
Darwin: Origin of Species focuses on the evolutionary mechanisms of nonhuman animals.
Biologists and philosophers of nineteenth century attempted to frame morality as an extension of the evolutionary biological process.
Problem of the theory: what is progress? What is good? Any signs of moral improvement since Plato?
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The Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics
Computer Ethics Institute
1. Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
2. Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
3. Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's computer files.
4. Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
5. Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
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6. Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid.
7. Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.
8. Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
9. Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you are writing or the system you are designing.
10. Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that insure consideration and respect for your fellow humans.
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References
Basic material:– http://ethics.acusd.edu/presentations/Hinman/theory/relativism/ – http://ethics.acusd.edu/socialethics/ – MORAL PHILOSOPHY THROUGH THE AGES, James Fieser, Mayfield
Publishing Company, 2001
Additional resources:– http://ethics.acusd.edu/relativism.html