Ethics, CS 340, Spring 2012

Material from:

•Spinello’s Case Studies in Ethics & his book CyberEthics

• Quinn’s Ethics for the Information Age• Tavani’s Ethics & Technology

•Baase’s The Gift of Fire•Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes

The Internet can:• Be empowering and

democratizing• Foster of harmful,

injurious human behavior

Ethical issues related to the Internet center around:

1. Governmental fear of this decentralized power

• What is the stance of countries like:

– China?

– Saudi Arabia?

– Germany?

– U.S.?

Ethical Issues & Net (cont’d)

2. Correcting behaviors through laws and regulations. Necessary considerations:

– Is the measure Constitutional?

– Is the measure effective?

– Is the measure enforceable?

– Is the measure ethical?

Lawrence Lessig

• Professor, author, “big thinker”• The four constraints that regulate our

behavior in real space & cyberspace: – Laws: ex post sanctions– Norms: expressed by the community– Market: prices for good and services– Architecture/code: self-enforcing

Code in cyberspace is more enforceable than law, hence the push to SOPA

Does cyberspace need its own set of laws?

• Is it unique as to need its own set of rules & method of governance

• Page 3, Judge Frank Easterbrook’s statement: “just as there is no need for a ‘law of the horse,’ there is no need for a ‘law of cyberspace.’”– Consider our discussion about the problems

presented by new technology in society: • Is this akin to stating these are just old problems in

a new context?

Hypotheticals, via LessigGoogle doc: pp. 3-5

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1CPNncLl4HWxwvv4eYecrjhAgYj_EPeLw0BFtyuLXLISa5eXzUXQ5Rk1_fbt2&hl=en

• 2 problems in zoned speech– “Zoning Speech” Porn. Porn in real space is zoned

from kids…

– “Protect Privacy” Comparing shopping in a store & online shopping.

Ethics as a meta-norm

• Has universal validity– Lasting and durable value– Transcends space and time– Intrinsic human goods and the moral choices

to realize those goods.– These principles work in diverse cultures

– Page 4

Examining our choice to live in a society:

• What kinds of things does living in a society provide an individual?

• In return, what is expected of the individual?

Morality• Tavani describes morality as a:

– “system of rules for guiding human conduct & the principles for evaluating those rules.”

Viewpoints on the need for moral behavior.

• Lon Fuller: morality of duty gives the “Basic rules without which an ordered society is impossible, or without which an ordered society directed toward certain specific goals must fail in its mark.”

Viewpointscont’d

• Many natural law philosophers say morality allows for human “flourishing”– w/o rules, complete

entitlement to everything– In Leviathan by Hobbes, life

w/o gov’t is pondered and declared to be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”

• To escape this condition “men in the state of nature accede to a social contract and establish a society”

Thomas Hobbes1588-1679

Ethics

• Ethical = Doing the right thing– How do we define the right thing?

• Where we place the value

• Ethics is the study of rational choices.

• Two dominant theories:1. Deontological2. Teleological

Deontological Ethicists

• Greek word – deon (duty)• Look at intrinsic value of the action

– consequences/outcome of the action are secondary, or to some of these ethicists - irrelevant.

• Spinello: deontological ethicists “argue for the priority of the right over the good” … “their rightness or wrongness does not depend in any way in the consequences which they effect.”

• Book section: Moral duty (pluralism) pp. 14-18

Kant - Universalism

• Immanuel Kant looks to what would happen if the action were universal.

• “I shall never act except in such a way that I can also will that my maxim become universal law.”– Absolutist: always wrong to lie. No exceptions

Kant’s Categorical Imperatives

• Kant’s first formulation:– “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at

the same time will that it should become a universal law.”

• Kant’s second formulation:– “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in

your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end.”

Three minute philosophy:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwOCmJevigw

Two problems with theUniversalism theory

• Rigidity:– Some exceptions to absolute duty would

make a lot of common sense.

• Sometimes two duties will conflict. – What to do then?

Hypo:

• P. 16• Applying Kant’s theory to illegal

downloading.

W. D. Ross: prima facie (potential) duties

• Another deontological theory• Unlike universalism it’s conditional, not

absolute

The Right and the Good

7 basic moral duties:– fidelity;– reparation;– justice;– beneficence;– self – improvement; – gratitude; – non-injury

– Pp. 17-8

Teleological Ethicists

• Greek word – telos (end)

• Actions evaluated by their consequence• Often called Consequentialism

– Guiding principle: to increase happiness, a.k.a. utility (satisfies needs and values)

– Look at the net consequence of behaviors.

Utilitarianism• Theory: correct course of action

maximizes expected utility &/or minimizes expected negative utility for humans

• Leading theorists are Jeremy Bentham & John Stuart Mill

• Bentham looks for what promotes “the general good”:

• "An act is right from an ethical point of view if, and only if, the sum total of utilities produced by that act is greater than the sum total utilities produced by another act the agent could have performed in its place."

Bentham (1748-1832)

Mill (1806-1873)

Hypo:

• Pp. 11-12, table page 13• Applying utilitarianism to surveillance of

employee email.

Problems with theory• Implication is that an evil act can be moral if it produces

a good consequence.• Difficulty in valuing the costs and benefits of the

consequences– What takes highest value– Measuring the immeasurable

• Assumes benefits and harm can be quantified and weighed against each other

• Spinello’s summary: without being arbitrary, utilitarianism requires a “moral calculus”… “using all the possibilities” to find “the greatest net expectable utility”

Calvin is not a deontologist, but is he a telelogical ethicist?

3rd approach: Contractarianism• As opposed to placing value on duty or

outcome, the focus shifts to individual rights– Ex. John Locke’s fundamental rights

(life, liberty, property)

• What is a right?

Negative & Positive Rights

• Negative right:– w/o gov’t interference– examples?

• Positive: – obligation to provide/help– examples?

The Social Contract• Spinello’s summary: “Society owes each individual

protection of these rights in exchange for” his or her “obedience to the law.” – Implicit social contract as stated by John Rawls.

• Moral reasoning should respect:– Individual rights– Have a philosophy of fairness

• Problems with theory?• Hypo: spam, p. 14

4th approach: The New Natural Law

• From the work of St. Thomas of Aquinas, a modern approach by Finnis & Grisez.

• “Good should be done and evil avoided.”

• Finnis’ 7 basic human goods for florishing:1. Life and health2. Knowledge of truth3. Play and work4. Aesthetic experience5. Sociability6. Religion7. Practical

reasonableness

5th approach: Moor’s Just Consequentialist Framework

• Moor’s Just Consequentialism– A theory developed to address issues from

technology• Do no harm PLUS notions of justice & fairness

1. Deliberate from impartial POV. Policy is ethical if:a) No unnecessary harmsb) Supports individual rights, fulfils duties

2. Select best policy by ranking benefits & harms:a) Weigh good & bad consequences carefullyb) Distinguish fact & value disagreements; Facts about a case

should inform discussion

Reconciling Ethical Approaches• Let each approach shed light on different

aspects of an ethical problem• Excellent summary table, p. 21

Normative guidance:• Autonomy • Nonmaleficence• Beneficence• Justice - Focus is to treat similarly situated people the same