Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
• Moodle Forum:
– Upload links to articles / videos that raise an ethical
Critical Reasoning & Moral question(s) regarding computing systems
• Give a brief (one sentence) summary of the material
Theory (Part 1) • State a brief (one/two sentence) argument about the ethical
situation(s) raised in the material
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Moral Issues & Theories Ethics & Morality
– Traditionally, ethics as: “philosophy of morality”
• When searching for answers on moral questions: – More recently: “ideals and rules of professional groups”
– Often ask questions for which there is no one single correct answer
– However, there may be (many) incorrect answers Ethics is a set of morally permissible standards of a group that each member
of the group (at his/her rational best) wants every other member to follow
• Moral Theories even if their doing so would mean that he/she must do the same
[Michael Davis, Profession, Code, & Ethics, p.40]
– To help explain why one answer may be better than another Morality is the set of standards everyone (every rational person at his/her
rational best) wants everyone to follow even if their following them means
– Help you figure out why you find it difficult to agree with another having to do the same
person about the answer to a moral question [Michael Davis, Profession, Code, & Ethics, p.41]
• Learning outcomes: Note: “Ethical” is not synonymous with “morally good”. An action might
be unethical but morally permissible.
– Today, you will learn some moral / ethical theories:
1. Virtue Theory [Qu: How does this relate to Alice in workshop 1 Scenarios?]
2. Act Utilitarianism
3. Rule Utilitarianism 5 6
Moral Theory
Ethics • The quest for defining morality an attempt to answer
Ethics one or both of the following:
Group B Group C
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Appropriate Indignation Empathy Spiteful Envious 16
Utilitarianism and Consequentialism Utilitarianism
• Consequentialism: • What is happiness?
– Term introduced by philosopher G. E. M. Anscombe (1958) – “pleasure and the absence of pain” [Mill]
– The consequence of an action, not the motivation, makes the • What is unhappiness?
action good or bad – “Pain and the absence of pleasure” [Mill]
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– Select a set of rules. Each act evaluated as to whether it Qu: Using act utilitarianism, how would you answer your
conforms to rules friend’s question: “How do I look?”
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Act Utilitarianism (2) Act Utilitarianism (3)
• Utilitarian calculus can be tricky… • Qu: Should the US government confiscate the fortune of a rich
American with $30bn and distribute to all Americans (who each
– Some pleasures different in quality (so count more or less receive $100)?
than others) – Consider how you would feel about receiving the money?
– Consider how you would feel about the government in future?
– How do we know particular action will actually make
another person happy
• Qu: Should we give all school children candy for lunch?
– Decisions may affect millions of people for hundreds of
years, so impact on total happiness hard to estimate – Consider time / long term effects
• If acting morally requires you to make such • Qu: A profoundly unhappy person has no friends or family. Is
predictions, it follows that acting morally requires it morally right to kill this person?
you to prepare yourself for that as best you can
– Even so, it is very difficult and can easily lead to errors – Are we happy with act utilitarian analysis? Rule utilitarianism helps to
resolve some of these difficulties…
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Homework… Summary
• Before Wednesday’s workshop: 1. You should now understand that ethics and morality are
– Individually: watch Edward Snowden video related but not synonymous
– Individually: find an news story related to computing systems 2. You should now be aware of the following moral theories
that has some ethical issues. Bring link to workshop and why we will not consider them in this course:
– Note taking group only: upload notes of today’s lecture to the – Divine Command Theory
Moodle wiki before Wednesday workshop – Cultural Relativism
• During tomorrow’s workshop: 3. You should now understand how to critically discuss an
ethical situation using the following moral theories:
1. Individually: presentation to class (1 minute) - introduce the – Virtue Theory
article you selected and give a brief ethical/moral explanation
– Act Utilitarianism
2. In groups: each group to present a summary of deliberative – Rule Utilitarianism
debate of Snowden’s video
3. In groups: write and submit a 1 page summary of tasks 1 and
2 (24 hours to submit)
[END]
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