Download On the Importance of Teaching Professional Ethics to Computer

Research Thinking and Writing Toolbox
DVA403
ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM
Gordana Dodig Crnkovic
School of Innovation, Design and Engineering,
Mälardalen University, Sweden
http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/
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Professional Ethics Course
Information about the course:
http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590
http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ethics/
[Website provides even extensive ethics resources.]
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Where do we find Ethics?
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Ethical Questions 1
–Environmental Ethics issues (global warming, pollution,
resources)
– Medical Ethics (resource distribution, transplants)
– Genetic Ethics (gene manipulation)
– Global Justice (consequence of global communications)
– Open Source & Open Access
– File sharing (Pirate Party in Sweden)
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Ethical Questions 2
–Ambient Intelligence/ Ubiquitous computing/
Networked things
– Nano-technology
– Autonomous, intelligent, adaptive, learning systems
– Robotics, industrial/social
– Social networking via web (Second Life, Facebook)
– Virtual worlds/ virtual economy
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Ethical Questions 3
– Privacy/
Personal Integrity/ Databases/ Datamining/
Surveillannce
– Decoding mental states from brain activity
(John-Dylan Haynes http://www.cbs.mpg.de/staff/haynes-10438
http://videolectures.net/john_dylan_haynes/
Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience)
– Medical Implants, Enhancements, Upgrades, Cloning
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Ethical Questions 4
–Safety critical systems
–Research ethics (publication, living research
objects, informed consent)
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Computing Curricula
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General Knowledge within Computing
Swedish Computer Science and Engineering education
follows in many respects an international model, the
American ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula
Typical general knowledge subjects that are widely
represented are Theory of Science and Research
Methodology.
However, the education in Professional Ethics, that is a
compulsory part of ACM/IEEE Computing Curriculum is
often absent.
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Computing Curricula, ACM/IEEE
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Social context of computing
Methods and tools of analysis of ethical argument
Professional and ethical responsibilities
Risks and liabilities of safety-critical systems
Intellectual property
Privacy and civil liberties
Social implications of the Internet
Computer crime
Philosophical foundations of ethics
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Identifying Ethical Issues
Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.
Director, The Values Institute
University of San Diego
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WHAT IS ETHICS?
“There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost
everything...is an inseparable compound of the two, so
that our best judgment of the preponderance between
them is continually demanded.”
Abraham Lincoln
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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 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."
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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.
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ETHICS
Descriptive ethics is the factual study of the ethical
standards or principles of a group or tradition;
Normative ethics is the development of theories that
systematically denominate right and wrong
actions;
Applied ethics is the use of these theories to form
judgments regarding practical cases; and
Meta-ethics is the analysis of the meaning and
justification of ethical claims
Source: www.ethicsquality.com/philosophy.html
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SOCIETY, VALUES AND NORMS
ETHICS
MORAL
LAW
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Identifying Moral Issues
Moral concerns are unavoidable in life.
They are not always easy to identify and define.
Moral issues within profession must be addressed
specifically within professional university education and
professional organizations.
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Ethics as an Ongoing Conversation
Professional discussions of ethical issues in journals.
We come back to some fundamental ideas again and
again, finding new meaning in them.
See http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/e/ethics.htm
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Ethical Issues in
Engineering
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Engineering as Social Experimentation
“All products of technology present some potential dangers,
and thus engineering is an inherently risky activity. In
order to underscore this fact and help in exploring its
ethical implications, we suggest that engineering
should be viewed as an experimental process. It is not,
of course, an experiment conducted solely in a
laboratory under controlled conditions. Rather, it is an
experiment on a social scale involving human
subjects.”
Ethics in Engineering, Martin, M.W., Schinzinger, McGraw-Hill, 1996
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Ethics Contexts
Ethical problems arise most often when there are
differences of judgment or expectations about what
constitutes the true state of affairs or a appropriate
course of action.
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Ethics Contexts
Industry
(Other firms)
Clients
Consumers
Profession
(Societies)
Engineering firm
Family
(Private Sphere)
Engineer
Colleague
s
Manager
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Global environment
Society/Nature
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A Framework for Ethical Decision
Making
The ethical decision making includes the following steps:
– recognize a moral issue
– get the facts
– evaluate the alternative actions from various moral
perspectives
– make a decision
– act
– reflect on the results of the decision afterwards.
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A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory
The Virtue Approach
Focuses on attitudes, dispositions, or character traits
that enable us to act in ways that develop our human
potentials. Examples: honesty, courage, faithfulness,
trustworthiness, integrity, etc.
The principle is: What is ethical is what develops moral
virtues in ourselves and our communities.
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A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory
The Utilitarian Approach
Focuses on the consequences that actions or policies
have on the well-being (“utility”) of all persons directly
or indirectly affected by the action or policy.
The principle is: Of any two actions, the most ethical
one will produce the greatest balance of benefits over
harms.
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A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory
The Rights Approach
Each person has a fundamental right to be respected and
treated as a free and equal rational person capable of
making his or her own decisions.
The principle is: An action or policy is morally right only if
those persons affected by the decision are not used
merely as instruments for advancing some goal, but are
fully informed and treated only with their informed
consent.
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Why Study Professional Ethics?
A professional ethics course is a means to increase the
ability of future engineers, managers to first recognize
and then responsibly confront moral issues raised by
technological activity.
The most important goal is to develop the ethical
autonomy, i.e. the skill and the habit of thinking rationally
and critically about the ethical issues.
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Why is Professional Ethics important?
– Professional Ethics as a part of education for every
socially important profession
– An important component of the professionalism!
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http://legacy.eos.ncsu.edu/eos/info/computer_ethics/ Ethics in Computing "site map"
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References
• Basic material:
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http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590
http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ethics/
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://www.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/ethics/
– http://ethics.acusd.edu/relativism.html
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