1

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic

Department of Computer Science and EngineeringMälardalen University

2007

PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

CDT409 LECTURE 1

2

Course PreliminariesIdentifying Ethics IssuesBasic Ethical Orientations

3

Course Preliminaries

All information about the course at:

http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590

4

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

5

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

6

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).

……………………………….. ………………………………..

7

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.

8

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.

9

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].

10

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

11

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

12

Identifying Moral Issues

Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.Director, The Values Institute

University of San Diego

13

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!

14

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

15

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."

16

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.

17

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.

18

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

19

ETHICS

Norm Systems

LAW MORAL

20

Identifying Moral Issues

Moral concerns are unavoidable in life. They are not always easy to identify and define.

21

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

22

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.

23

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.”

24

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.

25

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)

26

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

27

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

28

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

29

What to Expect from a Moral Theory

Functions of theory: Describe Explain Give strength Prescribe Open new possibilities

30

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

31

The Point of Ethical Reflection

Ethics as the evaluation of people’s behavior

Ethics as the search for the meaning of our own lives

32

Basic Moral Orientations

Overview

33

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”

34

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

35

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.”

36

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)

37

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)

38

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

39

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

40

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.

41

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

42

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)

43

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)

44

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?

45

 

46

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.

47

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.

48

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