ethics - IDt - Mälardalens högskola

Download Report

Transcript ethics - IDt - Mälardalens högskola

DVA215 INFORMATION - KUNSKAP - VETENSKAP
GRUNDLÄGGANDE VETENSKAPSTEORI
Agent-baserade modeller. Generativ kunskap. Simulering
Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
Akademin för innovation, design och teknik, Mälardalens högskola
1
KUNSKAPSGENERATION:
VÄRLDEN SOM INFORMATION FÖR EN AGENT
Bilden från: http://www.alexeikurakin.org
2
http://www.alexeikurakin.org/
Hebbs teori:
"celler som avfyras tillsammans, sammankopplas"
(eng. "cells that fire toghether, wire togher").
LÄRANDE OCH KUNSKAP
Barnet föds med nervsystemet och hjärnan
och förmågan att ta olika intryck från världen.
3
INFORMATIONSNÄTVERK
ORGANISMER
MÄNNISKAN
CELLER
SOCIALA GRUPPER
EKOLOGIER
MOLEKYLER
PLANETSYSTEM
ATOMER
ELEMENTÄRA PARTIKLAR
GALAXER
UNIVERSUM
http://www.media.mit.edu/events/fall11/networks Networks understanding networks, MIT conference
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni_A2bAkUww&feature=relmfu Albert-László Barabási
4
Links
 http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/
 http://www.mdh.se/university/organization/boards/Ethics
5
Professional Ethics Course
 Information about the course:
http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590
http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ethics/
[Website provides ethics resources including case studies and
contextualized scenarios in applied/professional ethics, working examples
of applied ethical problems used in teaching to highlight relevant ethical
principles, materials on informed consent, confidentiality, assessment,
privacy, trust and similar. ]
6
CONTENT
– Identifying Ethical Issues
Basic Moral Orientations
Ethical Relativism, Absolutism, and Pluralism
Immanuel Kant The Ethics of Duty (Deontological Ethics)
Utilitarianism
Rights
Justice
The Ethics of Character: Virtues and Vices
Egoism
Moral Reasoning and Gender
Environmental Ethics
 Professional Issues
 Plagiarism
 Criticism of the Sources
 Conclusions
7
Identifying Ethical Issues
Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.
Director, The Values Institute
University of San Diego
8
Ethics and Morality
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!
9
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
10
Ethics and Morality
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."
11
Ethics and Morality
 Morality: first-order set of beliefs and practices about how
to live a good life.
 Ethics: a second-order, conscious reflection on the
adequacy of our moral beliefs.
12
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
13
SOCIETY VALUES
ETHICS
LAW
14
MORAL
Identifying Moral Issues
 Moral concerns are unavoidable in life.
 They are not always easy to identify and define.
15
Ethics as an Ongoing Conversation
 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
16
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
17
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
18
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
19
What to Expect from Ethics
 Identification and description of an issue
 Explanation
 Support in deliberation
20
The Point of Ethical Reflection
 Ethics as the evaluation of other people’s behavior
 Ethics as the search for the meaning of our own lives
21
Basic Moral Orientations
22
On what basis do we make moral decisions?
(1)
 Divine Command Theories -- “Do what the Bible tells you”
or 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’s Moral Theory
 Ethical Egoism -- “Watch out for #1”
23
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
24
Divine Commands
 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.”
25
Utilitarianism
(Consequentialism)
 Hedonistic utilitarianism: Seeks to reduce
suffering and increase pleasure or
happiness
 Epicurus (341-270 BC) Greek
Epicurus
(341-270 BC)
“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
John Stuart Mill
1806-1873
“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)
26
Jeremy Bentham
(1748-1832)
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
Plato (427-347 BCE)
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 character
Aristotle (384-322 BCE.)
27
The Ethics of Duty
(Deontological* Ethics)
 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):
Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106 - 43) BC
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.
* ‘deon’ = duty
Immanuel Kant
1724-1804
28
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
29
Immanuel Kant
1724-1804
Ethical Egoism
 Says the only person to look out for is yourself
 Ayn Rand, The Ethics of Selfishness
 Well known for her novels, especially Atlas Shrugged*
 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.

*shrug - to raise the shoulders, especially as a gesture of doubt, disdain, or indifference
30
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
31
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
Thomas Hobbes
(1588-1679)
natural rights: life, health, liberty and
possessions.
John Locke
(1632-1704)
32
Evolutionary Ethics
 Human social behavior is an extended development of




33
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?
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)
34
Ethical Relativism,
Absolutism,
and Pluralism
Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.
Director, The Values Institute
University of San Diego
35
Classical Ethical/Cultural Relativism
The Greek Skeptics (1)
 Xenophanes (570-475 BCE)
“Ethiopians say that their gods are flat-nosed and dark, Thracians that
theirs are blue-eyed and red-haired. If oxen and horses and lions had
hands and were able to draw with their hands and do the same things
as men, horses would draw the shapes of gods to look like horses and
oxen to look like ox, and each would make the god’s bodies have the
same shape as they themselves had.”
 The historian Heroditus(484-425 BCE)
“Everyone without exception believes his own native customs, and the
religion he was brought up in, to be the best.”
36
Classical Ethical/Cultural Relativism
The Greek Skeptics (2)
 Sextus Empiricus (fl. 200 CE)
Gives example after example of moral standards that differ
from one society to another, such as attitudes about
homosexuality, incest, cannibalism, human sacrifice, the
killing of elderly, infanticide, theft, consumption of animal
flesh…
Sextus Empiricus concludes that we should doubt the
existence of an independent and universal standard of
morality, and instead regard moral values as the result of
cultural preferences.
37
Later Ethical Relativism (1)
 French philosopher Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592):
Custom has the power to shape every possible kind of
cultural practice. Although we pretend that morality is a fixed
feature of nature, morality too is formed through custom.
 Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776)
“fashion, vogue, custom, and law are the chief foundation of
all moral determinations”
38
Later Ethical Relativism (2)
 The fact of moral diversity
 We should not pass judgment on practices in other
cultures when we don’t understand them
 Sometimes reasonable people may differ on what’s
morally acceptable
39
Insights of Ethical Relativism
Ethical relativism has several important insights:
 The fact of moral diversity
 The need for tolerance and understanding
 We should not pass judgment on practices in other
cultures when we don’t understand them
 Sometimes reasonable people may differ on what’s
morally acceptable
40
Ethical Relativism: Limitations
 Presupposes an epistemological solipsism*
 Is unhelpful in dealing with overlaps of cultures--precisely
where we need help.
 Commerce and trade
 Media
 World Wide Web
[*Solipsism - belief in self as only reality: the belief that the
only thing somebody can be sure of is that he or she
exists, and that true knowledge of anything else is
impossible]
41
Ethical Relativism:
Overlapping Cultures, 1
 Ethical relativism suggests
that we let each culture
live as it sees fit.
 This is only feasible when
cultures don’t have to
interact with one another.
42
Ethical Relativism:
Overlapping Cultures, 2
 The challenge of the coming
century is precisely
overlapping cultures:




43
Multinational corporations
International media--BBC,
MTV, CNN
International sports--Olympics
World Wide Web
Ethical Relativism:
Overlapping Cultures, 3
 The actual situation in
today’s world is much
closer to the diagram at
the right.
44
Ethical Relativism:
Our Global Village, 5
 What if our world was a village
of 100 people?







58 would be Asians, 15 Europeans, 13 would come from the
Western Hemisphere, 12 would be Africans
70 would be non-white
67 would be non-Christian (33 Christians; 18 Moslems; 14
Hindus; 6 Buddhists; 5 atheists; 3 Jews; 24 other.)
16 would speak Chinese; 8 English; 8 Hindi; 6 Spanish; 6
Russian; and 5 Arabic.
50 % of the wealth would be held by 6 people.
70 could not read and
only one would have a university education.
45
http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/103/3areaoutline.htm
Ethical Relativism:
A Self-Defensive Position
 Ethical relativism maintains that we cannot make moral
judgments about other cultures
 The corollary of this is that we are protected in principle
against the judgments made by other cultures
46
How Much Dressed? Naked?
Rembrandt
Monk Reading, 1661
Fencer – protective suit
Apollo Belvedere 320 BCE
Taliban law requires women in
Afghanistan to wear a chador or
burqa that covers the face and
entire body.
47
A proper dress?
Amazonian
indigenous woman
with child
From the solitude of the
Holy Cross Abbey in
Virginia, a monk works
on the Internet,
21th century
Nuns uniforms
How Much Dressed? Naked?
Dieric Bouts - Madonna and Child
48
Leonardo da Vinci
Lady with an Ermine 1483-90
Holbein’s Family 1528
Arguments Against Ethical Relativism
 There Are Some Universals in Codes of Behavior across
Cultures
Three core common values:
 caring for children
 truth telling (trust) and
 prohibitions against murder
The society must guard against killing, abusing the
young, lying etc. that are at its own peril. Were the
society not to establish some rules against such
behaviors, the society itself would cease to exist.
49
Ethical Objectivism
 The view that moral principles have
objective validity whether or not people
recognize them as such, that is, moral
rightness or wrongness does not depend
on social approval, but on such
independent considerations as whether
the act or principle promotes human
flourishing or ameliorates human
suffering.
 What is moral depends on the fabric of
human nature.
50
Plato (427-347 BCE)
Immanuel Kant
1724-1804
Ethical Absolutism/Universalism
 Ethical Absolutism:
Morality is eternal and unchanging and holds for all
rational beings at all times and places. In other words,
moral right and wrong are fundamentally the same for all
people. (Morality is considered different than mere
etiquette).
There is only one correct answer to every moral problem.
A completely absolutist ethic consists of absolute
principles that provide an answer for every possible
situation in life, regardless of culture.
51
Ethical Absolutism
 Absolutism comes in many
versions--including the divine
right of kings
 Absolutism is less about what
we believe and more about
how we believe it
 Common elements:


52
There is a single Truth
Their position embodies that
truth
Louis XIV
(1638 – 1715)
Louis the Great, The Sun King
Ethical Absolutism
 Ethical absolutism gets some things right


We need to make judgments
Certain things are intolerable
 But it gets some things wrong, including:


53
Our truth is the truth
We can’t learn from others
Ethical Pluralism (1)
 Combines insights of both relativism and absolutism:
54

The central challenge: how to live together with
differing and conflicting values

Fallibilism: recognizes that we might be mistaken

Sees disagreement as a possible strength
Ethical Pluralism (2)
 Moral pluralists maintain that there are moral truths, but
they do not form a body of coherent and consistent truths
in the way that one finds in the science or mathematics.
Moral truths are real, but partial. Moreover, they are
inescapably plural. There are many moral truths, not just
one–and they may conflict with one another.
55
Ethical Pluralism (3)
 Pluralism is the cultural manifestation of ethical
individualism; it is implied by the respect for the human
being, for what it means to be human.
 We have differing moral perspectives, but we must often
inhabit a common world.
56
Ethical Pluralism (4)
Ethical pluralism offers three categories to describe actions:
 Prohibited: those actions which are not seen as
permissible at all
 Absolutism sees the importance of this
 Tolerated: those actions and values in which legitimate
differences are possible
 Relativism sees the importance of this
 Ideal: a moral vision of what the ideal society would be
like
57
Ethical Pluralism (5)
 For each action or policy,
we can place it in one of
three regions:
 Ideal--Center
 Permitted--Middle



58
Respected
Tolerated
Prohibited--Outside
Five Questions
 What is the present state?
 What is the ideal state?
 What is the minimally acceptable state?
 How do we get from the present to the minimally
acceptable state?
 How do we get from the minimum to the ideal state?
59
Immanuel Kant
THE ETHICS OF DUTY
(Deontological* Ethics)
* ‘deon’ = duty
60
Living by Rules
 Most of us live by rules much of the
time.
 Some of these are what Kant
called Categorical Imperatives.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
61
Categorical Imperatives
 Always act in such a way that the maxim of your action
can be willed as a universal law of humanity.
--Immanuel Kant
62
The Ethics of Respect (1)
One of Kant’s most lasting contributions to moral
philosophy was his emphasis on the notion of respect
(Achtung).
63
The Ethics of Respect (2)
 Respect has become a fundamental moral concept in
contemporary West
 There are rituals of respect in almost all cultures.
 Two central questions:
 What is respect?
 Who or what is the proper object of respect?
64
Kant on Respect
“Act in such a way that you always treat humanity,
whether in your own person or in the person of
any other, never simply as a means, but always at
the same time as an end.”
65
Kant on Respecting Persons
 Kant brought the notion of respect (Achtung) to the center
of moral philosophy for the first time.
 To respect people is to treat them as ends in themselves.
He sees people as autonomous, i.e., as giving the moral
law to themselves.
 The opposite of respecting people is treating them as
mere means to an end.
66
Using People as Mere Means
 The Tuskegee Syphilis
Experiments
67

More than four hundred African
American men infected with syphilis
went untreated for four decades in a
project the government called the
Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis
in the Negro Male.

Continued until 1972
Treating People as Ends in Themselves
What are the characteristics of treating people as ends in
themselves?
 Giving them relevant and accurate information
 Allowing them freedom of choice
68
Additional Cases
 Plant Closing
 Firing Long-Time Employees
 Medical Experimentation on Prisoners
 Medical Donations by Prisoners
 Medical Consent Forms
69
What Is the Proper Object of Respect?
 For Kant, the proper object of respect is the will. Hence,
respecting a person involves issues related to the will-knowledge and freedom.
 Other possible objects of respect:




70
Feelings and emotions
The dead
Animals
The natural world
Self-Respect
 Is lack of proper self-respect a moral failing?
 The Deferential* Wife

See article by Tom Hill, “Servility and Self-Respect”
*Deferential = Respectful, considerate
71
Self-Respect
 Aristotle and Self-Love

72
What is the difference between self-respect and
self-love? Clearly, there is at least a difference in
the affective element.
The Kantian Heritage
What Kant Helped Us to See Clearly
 The Admirable Side of Acting from Duty

The person of duty remains committed, not matter how difficult
things become.
 The Evenhandedness of Morality

Kantian morality does not play favorites.
 Respecting Other People

73
The notion of treating people as ends in themselves is central to
much of modern ethics.
The Kantian Heritage
Critique of Kant´s Deontology
 The Neglect of Moral Integration
The person of duty can have deep and conflicting
inclinations and this does not decrease moral worth—
indeed, it seems to increase it in Kant’s eyes.
 The Role of Emotions
 For Kant, the emotions are always suspect because
they are changeable.

74
The Kantian Heritage
Critique of Kant´s Deontology
 The Place of Consequences in the Moral Life

75
In order to protect the moral life from the changing of
moral luck, Kant held a very strong position that
refused to attach moral blame to individuals who were
acting with good will, even though some indirect bad
consequences could be foreseen.
The Kantian Heritage
Conclusion
Overall, after two hundred years, Kant remains an absolutely
central figure in contemporary moral philosophy, one from
whom we can learn much even when we disagree with
him.
76
Utilitarianism
77
Basic Insights of Utilitarianism
 The purpose of morality is to make the world a better
place.
 We should do whatever will bring the most benefit to all of
humanity.
78
The Purpose of Morality
 The utilitarian has a simple answer to the question of why
morality exists at all:
 The purpose of morality is to guide people’s actions in
such a way as to produce a better world.
 Consequently, the emphasis in utilitarianism is on
consequences, not intentions.
(At times, the road to hell is pawed with good intentions)
79
Fundamental Imperative
 The fundamental imperative of utilitarianism is:
Always act in the way that will produce the greatest
overall amount of good in the world.
80
The Emphasis on the Overall Good
 Utilitarianism is a demanding moral position that often
asks us to put aside self-interest for the sake of the whole.
 It always asks us to do the most, to maximize utility, not
to do the minimum.
 It asks us to set aside personal interest.
81
The Dream of Utilitarianism:
Bringing Scientific Certainty to Ethics
 Utilitarianism offers a powerful vision of the moral life, one
that promises to reduce or eliminate moral disagreement.
 If we can agree that the purpose of morality is to make
the world a better place; and
 If we can scientifically assess various possible courses
of action to determine which will have the greatest
positive effect on the world; then
 We can provide a scientific answer to the question of
what we ought to do.
82
Standards of Utility:
Intrinsic Value
 Many things have instrumental value, that is, they have
value as means to an end.
 However, there must be some things which are not merely
instrumental, but have value in themselves. This is what
we call intrinsic value.
 What has intrinsic value? Four principal candidates:
 Pleasure - Jeremy Bentham
 Happiness - John Stuart Mill
 Ideals - George Edward Moore
 Preferences - Kenneth Arrow
83
Jeremy Bentham
1748-1832
 Bentham believed that we should
try to increase the overall amount
of pleasure in the world.
84
Pleasure
 Criticisms
 Definition: The enjoyable
feeling we experience when
a state of deprivation is
replaced by fulfillment.
 Advantages
 Easy to quantify
 Short duration
 Bodily
85



Came to be known as
“the pig’s philosophy”
Ignores spiritual values
Could justify living on a
pleasure machine or
“happy pill”
John Stuart Mill
1806-1873
 Bentham’s godson
 Believed that happiness, not
pleasure, should be the standard
of utility.
86
Happiness
 Advantages


87
A higher standard,
more specific to
humans
About realization of
goals
 Disadvantages


More difficult to
measure
Competing conceptions
of happiness
Ideal Values
 G. E. Moore suggested that we should
strive to maximize ideal values such as
freedom, knowledge, justice, and beauty.
 The world may not be a better place with
more pleasure in it, but it certainly will be
a better place with more freedom, more
knowledge, more justice, and more
beauty.
 Moore’s candidates for intrinsic good
remain difficult to quantify.
G. E. Moore
1873-1958
88
Preferences
 Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel Prize winning
Stanford economist, argued that what
has intrinsic value is preference
satisfaction.
 The advantage of Arrow’s approach is
that, in effect, it lets people choose for
themselves what has intrinsic value.
It simply defines intrinsic value as
whatever satisfies an agent’s
preferences. It is elegant and
pluralistic.
KENNETH J. ARROW
Stanford University
Professor of Economics (Emeritus)
89
May this help? Lets make everyone happy!
Happy pill as a universal solution?
90
The Utilitarian Calculus
 Math and ethics finally merged: all
consequences must be measured and
weighed!
 Units of measurement:
 Hedons: positive
 Dolors: negative
91
What do we calculate?
 Hedons/dolors defined in terms of




92
Pleasure
Happiness
Ideals
Preferences
What do we calculate?
 For any given action, we must calculate:




93
How many people will be affected, negatively (dolors)
as well as positively (hedons)
How intensely they will be affected
Similar calculations for all available alternatives
Choose the action that produces the greatest overall
amount of utility (hedons minus dolors)
How much can we quantify?
 Pleasure and preference satisfaction are easier to quantify
than happiness or ideals
 Two distinct issues:
 Can everything be quantified?
The danger: if it can’t be counted, it doesn’t count.

Are quantified goods necessarily commensurable?
Are a fine dinner and a good night’s sleep commensurable?
94
“…the problems of three little people don’t amount to
a hill of beans in this crazy world.”
Utilitarianism doesn’t always
have a cold and calculating
face—we perform utilitarian
calculations in everyday life.
95
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
1. Responsibility
 Utilitarianism suggests that we are responsible for all the
consequences of our choices.
 The problem is that sometimes we can not foresee
consequences of other people’s actions that are taken in
response to our own acts. Are we responsible for those
actions, even though we don’t choose them or approve of
them?
96
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
2. Integrity
 Utilitarianism often demands that we put aside self-
interest. Sometimes this may mean putting aside our own
moral convictions.
 Integrity may involve certain identity-conferring
commitments, such that the violation of those
commitments entails a violation of who we are at our core.
97
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
3. Intentions
 Utilitarianism is concerned almost exclusively about
consequences, not intentions.
 There is a version of utilitarianism called “motive
utilitarianism,” developed by Robert Adams, that
attempts to correct this.
98
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
4. Moral Luck
 By concentrating exclusively on consequences,
utilitarianism makes the moral worth of our actions a
matter of luck. We must await the final
consequences before we find out if our action was
good or bad.
 This seems to make the moral life a matter of
chance, which runs counter to our basic moral
intuitions.
99
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
5. Who does the calculating?
 Historically, this was an issue for the British in India. The
British felt they wanted to do what was best for India, but
that they were the ones to judge what that was.
 See Ragavan Iyer, Utilitarianism and All That
 Typically, the count differs depending on who does the
counting
100
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
6. Who is included?
 When we consider the issue of consequences, we must
ask who is included within that circle.
 Classical utilitarianism has often claimed that we should
acknowledge the pain and suffering of animals and not
restrict the calculus just to human beings.
101
Concluding Assessment
 Utilitarianism is most appropriate for policy decisions, as
long as a strong notion of fundamental human rights
guarantees that it will not violate rights of minorities,
otherwise it is possible to use to justify outvoting
minorities.
102
Rights
103
Rights:
Changing Western History
 Many of the great documents of the last two centuries
have centered around the notion of rights.
 The Bill of Rights
 The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
 The United Nation Declaration of Human Rights
104
Human Rights
After the King John of England violated a number of
ancient laws and customs by which England had
been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the
Magna Carta, or Great Charter, which enumerates
what later came to be thought of as human rights.
105
Human Rights
Among rights of Magna Carta were the right of the church
to be free from governmental interference, the rights of all
free citizens to own and inherit property and be free from
excessive taxes. It established the right of widows who
owned property to choose not to remarry, and established
principles of due process and equality before the law. It
also contained provisions forbidding bribery and official
misconduct.
106
Rights:
A Base for Moral Change
 Many of the great movements of this
century have centered around the
notion of rights.
 The Civil Rights Movement
 Equal rights for women
 Movements for the rights of
indigenous peoples
 Children’s rights
 Gay rights
107
Justifications for Rights
 Self-evidence
 Divine Foundation
 Natural Law
 Human Nature
108
Self-evidence
 “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776
109
Divine Foundation
 “We have granted to God, and by this
our present Charter have confirmed, for
us and our Heirs for ever, That the
Church of England shall be free, and
shall have her whole rights and liberties
inviolable. We have granted also, and
given to all the freemen of our realm, for
us and our Heirs for ever, these liberties
underwritten, to have and to hold to
them and their Heirs, of us and our
Heirs for ever.”
The Magna Carta, 1297
110
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1.
 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and
rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and
should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
 http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
111
Rights-related Questions
 Freedom of Speech
 Death Penalty
 The Disappeared
 Economic & Social Rights
 Terrorism & Anti-Terrorism
 Corruption
112
Natural Law
 According to natural law ethical theory, the moral
standards that govern human behavior are, in some
sense, objectively derived from the nature of human
beings.
113
Natural Law
Human Nature
 Arguments for natural rights that appeal to human nature
involve the following steps:

114
Establish that some characteristic of human nature,
such as the ability to make free choices, is essential
to human life.
Natural Law
Human Nature
115

Establish that certain empirical conditions, such as
the absence of physical constraints, are necessary
for the existence or the exercise of that
characteristic;

Conclude that people have a right to those
empirical conditions.
Two Concepts of Rights
 The distinction depends on the obligation that is placed on
those who must respect your rights.
 Negative Rights
 Obliges others not to interfere with your exercise of the
right.
 Positive Rights
 Obligates others to provide you with positive assistance
in the exercise of that right.
116
Negative Rights
 Negative rights simply impose on others the duty not to
interfere with your rights.
 The right to life, construed as a negative right, obliges
others not to kill you.
 The right to free speech, construed as a negative right,
obliges others not to interfere with your free speech
117
Positive Rights
 Positive rights impose on others a specific obligation to do
something to assist you in the exercise of your right
 The right to life, construed as a positive right, obliges
others to provide you with the basics necessary to
sustain life if you are unable to provide these for
yourself
 The right to free speech, construed as a positive right,
obligates others to provide you with the necessary
conditions for your free speech--e.g., air time,
newspaper space, etc.
 Welfare rights are typically construed as positive rights.
118
Positive Rights:
Critique
 Who is obligated to provide positive assistance?



119
People in general
Each of us individually
The state (government)
The Limitations of Rights Concept
 Rights, Community, and Individualism
 Rights and Close Relationships
120
The Limitations of Rights Concept
Contradicting rights: Athos and Women
 Greek public community is indignant at the decision
recently taken by the Dutch court and at the resolution of
European parliament.
 In January, a Greek law that allows monks from the Athos
Monastery not to let women to the Holy Mount was
officially declared in court as contradicting human rights.
121
The Limitations of Rights Concept
Contradicting rights: Athos and Women
An official response to the declaration was immediate:
governmental spokesman told European human rights
activists that the right of the Athos monastery republic not
to let women to the Holy Mount was confirmed in the
treaty of Greece-s incorporation into the European Union.
122
Concluding Evaluation
 Rights do not tell the whole story of ethics, especially in
the area of personal relationships.
 Rights are always defined for groups of people (humanity,
women, indigenous people, workers etc).
123
Personal Integrity vs Public Safety
124
Justice
125
Introduction
 All of us have been the recipients of demands of justice.
My 6 year old daughter protesting, “Daddy, it’s not fair
for you to get a cookie at night and I don’t.”
 All of us have also been in the position of demanding
justice.
 I told the builder of my house that, since he replaced
defective windows for a neighbor, he should replace
my defective windows.

126
Conceptions of Justice
 Distributive Justice
Benefits and burdens
 Compensatory/Recompensatory Justice
 Criminal justice

127
Distributive Justice
 The central question of distributive justice is the question
of how the benefits and burdens of our lives are to be
distributed.
 Justice involves giving each person his or her due.
 Equals are to be treated equally.
128
Goods Subject to Distribution
 What is to be distributed?



129
Income
Wealth
Opportunities
Subjects of Distribution
 To whom are good to be distributed?



130
Individual persons
Groups of persons
Classes
Basis for Distribution
 On what basis should goods be distributed?




131
Equality
Individual needs or desires
Free market transactions
Ability to make best use of the goods
Strict Egalitarianism
 Basic principle: every person should have the same level
of material goods and services
 Criticisms
 Unduly restricts individual freedom
 May conflict with what people deserve
132
The Difference Principle
 More wealth may be produced in a system where those
who are more productive earn greater incomes.
 Strict egalitarianism may discourage maximal production
of wealth.
133
Welfare-Based Approaches
 Seek to maximize well-being of society as a whole
134
Desert*-Based Approaches
 Distributive systems are just insofar as they distribute
incomes according to the different levels earned or
deserved by the individuals in the society for their
productive labors, efforts or contributions. (Feinberg)
135
*desert - förtjänst; förtjänt lön, vedergällning
according to one's deserts efter förtjänst
Desert*-Based Approaches
 Distribution is based on:
Actual contribution to the social product
 Effort one expend in work activity
 Compensation to the costs
 Seeks to raise the overall standard of living by rewarding
effort and achievement
 May be applied only to working adults

136
137
Try to run “Wealth Distribution”, a model that simulates the
distribution of wealth.
http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/WealthDistribution
The Ethics of Character:
Virtues and Vices
138
Introduction
Concern for character has
flourished in the West since
the time of Plato, whose
early dialogues explored
such virtues as courage and
piety*.
Plato (by Michaelangelo)
139
* fromhet
Two Moral Questions
 The Question of Action:
How ought I to act?
 The Question of Character
 What kind of person ought I to be?
 Our concern here is with the question of character

140
An Analogy from the Criminal Justice System
• As a country, we place our trust for just decisions in the legal
arena in two places:
 Laws, which provide the necessary rules
 People, who (as judge and jury) apply rules judiciously
• Similarly, ethics places its trust in:
 Theories, which provide rules for conduct
 Virtue, which provides the wisdom necessary for applying
rules in particular instances
141
Virtue
 Strength of character




142
(habit)
Involving both feeling,
knowing and action
Seeks the mean between
excess and deficiency
relative to us
Dynamic balance
Secure desirable behavior
Aristotle (by Michaelangelo)
The Seven Essential Virtues
Defining “Moral IQ”
 Empathy
 Conscience



 Self-Control

 Respect

 Tolerance
 Fairness
 Kindness
143
*Aristotles cardinal virtues


Wisdom*
Courage*
Temperance*
Justice*
Integrity
Responsibility
Honesty
Virtues (1)
Sphere of
Existence
Deficiency
Attitude toward Servility
self
Self-deprecation
Attitude toward
offenses of
others
Attitude toward
good
deeds of
others
Ignoring them
Being a Doormat
Suspicion
Envy
Ignoring them
Mean
Excess
Arrogance
Proper Self-Love Conceit
Proper Pride
Egoism
Self-Respect
Narcissism
Vanity
Anger
Revenge
Forgiveness
Grudge
Understanding
Resentment
Gratitude
Admiration
Regret,
Attitude toward Indifference
Remorse
Remorselessness
our
Making Amends
own offenses
Downplaying
Self-Forgiveness
Attitude toward
Indifference
Loyalty
our friends
Over
indebtedness
Toxic Guilt
Scrupulosity
Shame
Obsequiousness
144
Virtues (2)
Sphere of
Existence
Deficiency
Mean
Excess
Attitude toward
our
own good deeds
Belittling
Disappointment
Sense of
Accomplishment
Humility
Selfrighteousness
Attitude toward
the
suffering of
others
Callousness
Compassion
Pity
“Bleeding
Heart”
Attitude toward
the
achievements of
others
Selfsatisfaction
Complacency
Competition
Admiration
Emulation
Envy
Cowardice
Courage
Foolhardiness
Anhedonia
Temperance
Moderation
Lust
Gluttony
Exploitation
Respect
Deferentiality
Attitude toward
death
and danger
Attitude toward
our
own desires
Attitude toward
other people
145
Two Concepts of Morality
 In a simplified scheme, we can contrast two approaches to
the morality.
 Restrictive concept:





Affirmative concept:




146
Child vs. adult
Comes from outside (usually parents).
“Don’t touch that stove burner!”
Rules and habit formation are central.
Adult vs. adult
Comes from within (self-directed).
“This is the kind of person I want to be”
Virtue-centered, often modeled on ideals.
Rightly-ordered Desires and the Goals of
Moral Education
 Moral education may initially seek to control unruly desires
through rules, the formation of habits, etc.
 Ultimately, moral education aims at forming and cultivating
virtuous conduct.
147
Virtue As the Golden Mean
 Strength of character (virtue), Aristotle suggests, involves
finding the proper balance between two extremes.
 Excess: having too much of something.
 Deficiency: having too little of something.
 Not mediocrity, but harmony and balance.
148
Virtue and Habit
 For Aristotle, virtue is something that is practiced and
thereby learned—it is habit (hexis).
 This has clear implications for moral education, for
Aristotle obviously thinks that you can teach people to be
virtuous.
149
Egoism
150
Two Types of Egoism
 Two types of egoism:

Psychological egoism



Ethical egoism

151
Asserts that as a matter of fact we do always act selfishly
Purely descriptive
Maintains that we should always act selfishly
What does it mean to be selfish?
 If we are selfish, do we only do
things that are in our genuine selfinterest?


What about the chain smoker? Is this
person acting out of genuine selfinterest?
In fact, the smoker may be acting
selfishly (doing what he wants without
regard to others) but not selfinterestedly (doing what will ultimately
benefit him).
152
What does it mean to be selfish?
 If we are selfish, do we only do
things we believe are in our selfinterest?


What about those who believe that
sometimes they act altruistically?
Does anyone truly believe Mother
Theresa was completely selfish?
 Think of the actions of parents.
Don’t parents sometimes act for
the sake of their children, even
when it is against their narrow
self-interest to do so?
153
Mother Theresa (1910-1997)
Re-conceptualizing Psychological Egoism
In addition to having two independent axes, we must distinguish between
the intentions of actions and their consequences. Thus we get two
graphs:
Consequences
Intentions
Strongly intended to help others
Not
intended to
benefit self
High beneficial To others
Strongly
intended to
benefit self
Strongly intended to harm others
154
Highly
harmful to
self
Highly
beneficial to
self
Highly harmful to others
Ethical Egoism
155
Ethical Egoism
 Selfishness is praised as a virtue

Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness
 May appeal to psychological egoism as a
foundation
 Often very compelling for high school
students
Ayn Rand (1905-1982). (born
Alice Rosenbaum)
156
Versions of Ethical Egoism
 Personal Ethical Egoism
“I am going to act only in my own interest, and
everyone else can do whatever they want.”
 Individual Ethical Egoism
 “Everyone should act in my own interest.”
 Universal Ethical Egoism
 “Each individual should act in his or her own self
interest.”

157
Altruism
 Unselfish concern for the welfare of others;
selflessness, charity, generosity.
 Zoology. Instinctive cooperative behavior that is detrimental
(harmful) to the individual but contributes to the survival of
the species.
158
Universalizing Ethical Egoism
 Can the ethical egoist consistently will that everyone else
follow the tenets of ethical egoism?
 It seems to be in one’s self-interest to be selfish oneself
and yet get everyone else to act altruistically
(especially if they act for your benefit). This leads to
individual ethical egoism.
 Some philosophers such as Jesse Kalin have argued that
in sports we consistently universalize ethical egoism: we
intend to win, but we want our opponents to try as hard as
they can!
159
Egoism, Altruism, and
the Ideal World
 Ideally, we seek a society in which
self-interest and regard for others
converge—the green zone.
 Egoism at the expense of others and
altruism at the expense of selfinterest both create worlds in which
goodness and self-regard are
mutually exclusive—the yellow zone.
 No one want the red zone, which is
against both self-interest and regard
for others.
Aristotle
Tocqueville’s
“Self-interest rightly understood”
High
Altruism
Kant
Low
Egoism
Not beneficial
either to self
or others
Drug addiction
Alcoholism, etc.
160
Self-interest
and regard
for others
converge
Self-sacrificing
altruism
High
Egoism
Self-interest
at the expense
of others
Low
Altruism
Hobbes’s
State of Nature,
Nietzsche?
Sinking Titanic: Egoism vs. Altruism
(Even risks in technical systems)
161
Moral Reasoning and
Gender
The Kohlberg-Gilligan Debate and Beyond
162
Le Deuxième Sexe - The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir 1949
 Woman as the Other
“For a long time I have hesitated to
write a book on woman. The subject
is irritating, especially to women; and
it is not new. Enough ink has been
spilled in quarrelling …”
Simone de Beauvoir
163
http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/beav.htm
Lawrence Kohlberg
 American psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg
(Harvard) studied under Swiss psychologist and
philosopher Jean Piaget (1965), who had
developmental approach to learning. Kohlberg
extended the approach to stages of moral
reasoning.
 Using surveys, Kohlberg presented his subjects
with moral dilemmas and asked them to evaluate
the moral conflict. He was able to prove that youth
at various ages, as youth proceed to adulthood,
they are able to progress up the moral
development stages presented,
164
Lawrence Kohlberg
(1927 - 1987)
Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development
LEVEL
STAGE
1
Obedience and Punishment
2
Individualism, Instrumentalism, and
Exchange
3
"Good boy/girl"
4
Law and Order
5
Social Contract
6
Principled Conscience
Pre-conventional
Conventional
Post-conventional
165
SOCIAL ORIENTATION
Gender and Kohlberg’s scale
 Women are more likely to base their explanations for
moral dilemmas on concepts such as caring and personal
relationships. These concepts are likely to be scored at
the stage three level. Men, on the other hand, are more
likely to base their decisions for moral dilemmas on social
contract or justice and equity. Those concepts are likely to
be scored at stage five or six.
166
Carol Gilligan
 University Professor of Gender
Studies,
Harvard University (1997present)
 In a Different Voice:
Psychological Theory and
Women's Development,
book 1982.
Carol Gilligan,
1936 - present
167
How do we understand Gilligan’s claims?
Plato: Meno
SOCRATES: (…) By the gods, Meno, be generous, and tell
me what you say that virtue is; (…)
MENO: (…) Let us take first the virtue of a man--he should
know how to administer the state, and in the
administration of it to benefit his friends and harm his
enemies; and he must also be careful not to suffer harm
himself. A woman's virtue, if you wish to know about that,
may also be easily described: her duty is to order her
house, and keep what is indoors, and obey her husband.
Every age, every condition of life, young or old, male or
female, bond or free, has a different virtue (…)
168
How do we understand Gilligan’s claims?
 With the advent of industrial revolution, and welfare state
where all children are given education, and physical
strength has no dominant role, women have entered the
public sphere traditionally dominated by males.
 Female professionals have encountered a culture that
was historically male territory. It caused cultural shock.
169
How do we interpret Gilligan’s claims?
Four possible positions about female vs. male moral
voices:
 Separate but equal
 Superiority thesis
 Integrationist thesis
 Diversity thesis
170
The Diversity Thesis



Suggests that there are different moral voices
Sees this as a source of richness and growth in the
moral life
External diversity



Internal diversity


171
Different individuals have different, sex-based moral voices
Males with female voices and females with male voices are
admitted
Each of us have both masculine and feminine moral voices
within us
Minimizes gender stereotyping
Conclusion
“The Show must go on” (Freddy Mercury)
 Kohlberg – Gilligan controversy is but a beginning of a
long process of re-thinking position of women in a postmodern society.
 The end of industrialist era and the emergency of new
information technology results in conditions that even
more favor female professionals.
172
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
173
The Earth
"We have not inherited the Earth from our fathers. We
are borrowing it from our children."
Native American saying
174
Environmental Ethics and Philosophy
Are There Universal Ethical Principles?
 Universalists: Plato, Kant believe that fundamental
principles of ethics are universal, unchanging and eternal
 Relativists: Sophists- everything contextual. Believe that
moral principles are always relative to a particular person
 Nihilists: Schopenhauer- arbitrary survival. Claim that the
world makes no sense at all and that everything is
completely arbitrary
 Utilitarians: Bentham - greatest good for greatest number
of people
175
Values, Rights, and Obligations
 Moral agents. Some philosophers believe that only
humans are moral agents
 Moral subjects. Children are considered moral subjects
not moral agents
 Inherent, instrumental value
 Non-living things, do they have value?
176
Worldviews and Ethical Perspectives
 Individual beliefs towards ecology depend on ethical
perspectives
 Most people have set of core values or beliefs
 Environmental concerns are a source for comparisons
among different values and perceptions
177
Worldviews and Ethical Perspectives
Domination
 Interpretation of some religious values has lead in past to
anthropocentric (human-centered) ecological principles
which believe that humans are the focus of creation
 Current movement in religious organizations to fight for
ecological concerns
178
Worldviews and Ethical Perspectives
Stewardship
 Responsibility to manage our ecosystem. To work
together with human and non-human forces to sustain life
179
Worldviews and Ethical Perspectives
Biocentrism (life-centered), Animal Rights, and Ecocentrism
(ecologically-centered)
 Biocentrism: biodiversity is the highest ethical value in
nature
 Animal rights supporters focus on the individual
 Ecocentrism: whole is more important than individual
animal
Ecofeminism


180
Warren, Shiva, Merchant, Ruether, and King
A network of personal relationships
Worldviews and ethical perspectives
A comparison
181
Philosophy
Intrinsic Value
Instrumental Value
Role of humans
Anthropocentric
Humans
Nature
Masters
Stewardship
Humans & Nature
Tools
Caretakers
Biocentric
Species
Abiotic nature
One of many
Animal rights
Individuals
Processes
Equals
Ecocentric
Processes
Individuals
Destroyers
Ecofeminist
Relationships
Roles
Caregivers
Environmental Justice
 Combination of civil rights and environmental protection
that demands a safe, healthy life-giving environment for
everyone
 Most people of low socio-economic position are exposed
to high pollution levels
182
Environmental Racism
 Unequal distribution of hazardous waste based on race
 Black children 2-3 times more likely to have lead
poisoning
Dumping Across Borders
 Toxic colonialism: targeting third/fourth world countries for
waste disposal
 Polluting industries move to poor countries
 Environmental Justice Act (1992)
183
184
Science as a Way of Knowing
A Faustian Bargain?
 Technology can create power to save and destroy life
 Dr. Faustus sold his soul to the devil in exchange for
power and wealth (youth)
185
Management Theory and the Environment
 Anthropocentric Theories
 Ethics
 Economic
 Corporate Social Responsibility



Stakeholder
Normative
Social Contract
 Green Management Theories
 Ecocentricism
 Adjusted Stakeholder
 Sustainablity
 Resource Based Theory
186
Global Environmental Ethics
187
Environmental Ethics and Business
 Western Society - Objectifies Nature
Locke - “Something in a state of nature has no
economic value and is of no utility to the human race”
 Ethics - a concern with actions and practices directed to
improving the welfare of people.

188
Economic Fundamentalism and Ethics
The corporate social responsibility of a business is to
increase profit. - M. Friedman
 Those things that cannot be traded on the market have no
value.
 Where does the environment fit in these definitions for
environmental ethics?
 Will people and corporations do environmentally
responsible things on their own? What happens if they
do?
189
Corporate Social Responsibility
 By doing socially responsible things, businesses better
human life.
 Hopefully ..good ethics is good business.
 Is this true?
 Is enlightened self interest a good way?
190
Incorporating Environment into Management
 Environmental Ethics is a starting point
Expanding ethics to include nature.
 What is the difficulty in doing this?
 What does the Biocentric ethic say (Goodpaster?)
 Biocentrism
 Natural objects have intrinsic value and morally
considerable in their own right.
 Deep Ecology nature has an ethical status at least
equal to humans.

191
Green Management
 Ecocentrism views industrial relationships in a cycle, and
a whole set of philosophies.
How radical is this?
 Sustaincentrism - going beyond sustainability of
development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their needs.
 Human and economic relationships inextricably linked
with natural systems.
192
Resource Extraction and Use
 Burning of fossil fuels
 Destruction of tropical
rainforests and other
biologically rich
landscapes
 Production of toxic wastes
193
Environmental Science
Environment - the
circumstances and
conditions that surround an
organism or a group of
organisms
Environmental science the systematic study of our
environment and our place
in it
194
What ought I to do?
Intention
Action
Consequence
Duty
Deontological Ethics
195
What ought I to do?
Intention
Action
Consequence
Consequentialist Ethics
196
http://www.envirolink.org/
- Agriculture
- Air Quality
- Climate Change
- Ecosystems
- Energy
- Environmental Disasters
- Environmental Economics
- Environmental Education
- Environmental Ethics
- Environmental Legislation and Policy
- Ground Pollution
- Habitat Conservation
- Human Health
- Natural History
- Oceans
- Outdoor Recreation
- Population
- Sustainable Business
- Sustainable Development
- Sustainable Living
- Transportation
- Urban Issues
- Vegetarianism
- Waste Management
- Water Quality
- Wildlife
197
Ethics Contexts
Industry
(Other firms)
Clients
Consumers
Profession
(Societies)
Engineering firm
Family
(Private Sphere)
Engineer
Colleagues
Managers
Global environment
Society/Nature
198
Research Ethics Committee
University of Mälardalen
Ethics committee decision making
Research ethical issues of MDH, advisory committee:
http://www.mdh.se/university/organization/boards/Ethics
Decision-making (policy-making) body in Uppsala
http://www.epn.se/
199
What is Professional Ethics?
There are many ways to introduce applied/professional
ethics with different focus:
 Pragmatic
 Embedded
 Theoretical
 Emerging Issues
200
Approach 1
Pragmatic
Ethical issues are introduced via a consideration of their
practical consequences. Consequences are defined in
relation to:
• The framework of rules and procedures defined by
regulatory bodies charged with the task of raising or
maintaining professional standards.
• Research Ethics Committees and the factors that
influence their deliberations
201
Approach 2
Embedded
Ethical concerns are presented holistically, as an integral
part of some broader area of concern such as:
• Fitness for Practice.
• Professionalism.
The embedded approach places an emphasis on the sense
of professional identity.
202
Approach 3
Theoretical
This approach focuses on the understanding of ethics
theory.
The ethics of life-like situations are presented in terms of the
application of different ethical theories.
203
Emerging Professional Issues
Professional ethics introduces new issues and concerns by
seeking to guide and shape graduate behaviour as a way
of meeting public expectations with regard to professional
conduct and accountability.
204
Professional Ethics Primary Objectives
1.
To help professionals make choices that they can live with,
and by reducing the emotional and psychological stress
caused by moral indecision and confusion.
2.
To ensure that the professional acts in a way that serves
the best interests of society in general and their serviceusers in particular.
3.
To ensure that the professionals acts in a way that serves
the best interests of their chosen profession.
205
CRITICISM OF THE
SOURCES
Academic Honesty
206
What is cheating?
 Plagiarizing - copying, paraphrasing and self-plagiarizing
 Unauthorized co-operation
 Joyriding or taking advantage
 Fabrication
 Un-authorized aids
207
Consequences
 All suspected cases will be reported to the disciplinary
committee
 The teacher is not allowed to haggle or punish!
 Warning or suspension from classes
 IDE practice is a zero tolerance against academic
dishonesty
208
Rules
 ”Individually” means by one single person
 Be prepared to describe carefully how you solved the




209
assignment
The names on the cover are the names of those who
made the assignment
Use references to everything that is not your own present
work!
When in doubt – ask teacher
Read http://www.mdh.se/ide/utbildning/cheating
Concluding Comments
210
Conclusion
“The Show must go on” (Freddy Mercury)
 Complexity of the real world problems – number of
processes go on concurrently
 Ambiguity of theoretical representations and
interpretations
 No absolute truth, but the commitment to the commonly
accepted ”good enough” ”reasonably good” solutions
211
World seen in different light
What if we could see in any wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum,
from gamma-rays to radio waves? How would the world appear to us?
212
Images of the sun
RADIO
INFRARED
ULTRAVIOLET
VISIBLE
X-RAY
213
Images of the moon
RADIO
INFRARED
ULTRAVIOLET
VISIBLE
X-RAY
214
Images of galaxy M81
RADIO
INFRARED
ULTRAVIOLET
VISIBLE
X-RAY
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/CHAMP/EDUCATION/PUBLIC/multiwavelengthphotos_pics.html
215