ITE 6201E/6203A

SOCIAL ISSUES AND

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE

VIRTUAL CLASS
MS. KARREN V. DE LARA
OLC COMPUTING
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What are Ethics?

Historical Determinants of
Ethics

OUTLINE
Contemporary Views

Theories of Ethics

Ethics vs. Legality

Professional Codes of Ethics

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Objectives of the Outline:

 To provide a foundational understanding of ethical theory

 To provide a process for analyzing ethical situations and for making decisions in
response to them
 To provide the opportunity for students to consider some ethical circumstances
involving Information Technology that have the potential to harm individuals,
organizations, or society.
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Introduction: What are “Ethics”?

 The study of what it means to do the right thing.

 Making a principle-based choice between competing alternatives.
 The word “Ethics” comes from a Greek word “ethos” or character, and from
the Latin word “mores” or customs.
 Making principled and defensible decisions
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What are Ethics?

 Principles based on our understanding of what is good, right, proper, moral, or

ethical.
 Ideas of behavior that are commonly acceptable to society
 We are influenced by a variety of sources such as family, religious institutions,
educational institutions, professional organizations, government, etc.
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Ethics and Morality

❑ Ethics refers to standards of conduct, standards that indicate how one should
behave based on moral duties and virtues, which themselves are derived from
principles of right and wrong.
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Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Although it has been questioned as to whether it applied equally to different

genders and different cultures, Kohlberg’s (1973) stages of moral development is
the most widely cited. It breaks our development of morality into three levels, each
of which is divided further into two stages:

Preconventional Level (up to age nine): ~Self Focused Morality~

1. Morality is defined as obeying rules and avoiding negative consequences.

Children in this stage see rules set, typically by parents, as defining moral
law.
2. That which satisfies the child’s needs is seen as good and moral.
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Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Conventional Level (age nine to adolescence): ~Other Focused Morality~

3. Children begin to understand what is expected of them by their parents,

teacher, etc. Morality is seen as achieving these expectations.
4. Fulfilling obligations as well as following expectations are seen as moral law
for children in this stage.
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Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Postconventional Level (adulthood): ~Higher Focused Morality~

5. As adults, we begin to understand that people have different opinions about

morality and that rules and laws vary from group to group and culture to
culture. Morality is seen as upholding the values of your group or culture.
6. Understanding your own personal beliefs allow adults to judge themselves
and others based upon higher levels of morality. In this stage what is right
and wrong is based upon the circumstances surrounding an action. Basics
of morality are the foundation with independent thought playing an important
role.
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Why care about Ethics?

 Self-interest:
• Some unethical actions are also illegal
• Some can effect our careers and reputation

 For the interest of the others

• Some unethical decisions can hurt other individuals, the organization we
work for, or society
• Ethical decision making impacts on the type of society that is created
• Ethical practices are a reflection of the factors that the members of a
particular society place value on
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What is Ethical Decision Making?

• When faced with an ethical dilemma the objective is to make a judgment based
on well-reasoned, defensible ethical principles
• The risk is poor judgment i.e. a low-quality decision
• A low-quality decision can have a wide range of negative consequences
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Historical Determination of Ethics

• Religious ethical standards:

• Judaism, Christianity and Islam

• Divine Command Theory

• Good actions are those aligned with the will of

God and bad actions are contrary to the will of
God.
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Historical Determination of Ethics

 Community ethical standards. Usually a consensus interpretation of religious

ethics but added to or modified where necessary

 Moral philosophers – Socrates and Plato – mused on the nature of men and of
explanations for their actions
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Theories of Ethics

While it may be that some values are relative and that people are often selfish, we
do not have to conclude that all values are relative or that people are always
selfish. An ethical theory attempts to provide a set of fundamental moral principles
in harmony with our moral intuitions.

▪ Religious Ethics – An authoritative rule book to tell us what rules to follow.

▪ Duty Ethics - Fulfill your obligations. Duties and rights are two sides of the
same coin.
▪ Utilitarianism – There is one and only one supreme moral principal – that we
should seek the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Maximize
happiness. Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill (1800).
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Theories of Ethics

▪ Kant’s Approach To Ethics – Can your actions be consistently generalized?

Ask yourself “What if everyone did that?”. According to Kant, if something is
wrong, it is always wrong!
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Immanuel Kant
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Philosopher.
1724 - 1804
Deontology
Absolutism
Kantian Ethics
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy -
Deontology
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Deontology

 From the Greek word deon meaning “Duty”

 Etymology
 De (to disestablish connection).
 Ontos (Greek onto meaning “being).

 Immanuel Kant’s use of the word essentially means that we should “separate
ourselves” and our own needs and preferences from our ethical decisions. Thus
we do right as a matter of “duty”
 Our ethical methods and values should arise outside ourselves. They do not
depend on humans for their existence.
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Kant’s Principles

 Kantian Ethics – also known as Absolutism

 Based on the idea that the only consideration is the “Act” itself
 Actionsare either intrinsically moral or not moral
 Decisions should be based on whether or not the action is a moral one
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Kant’s Principles

1. The principle of CONSISTENCY: Judge your actions by considering the

outcome should your action be made a universal law. (i.e. What if it was
compulsory for everyone to do what you are doing?)
2. The principle of RESPECT: Always consider human beings as ends in
themselves, never as means to an end. (i.e. Treat others as valued people.
Never just use them for your purposes.) This is Kant’s principle of “respect”.
3. The principle of DUTY: Actions performed out of a sense of duty (that also
conform to 1 & 2 above) are morally praiseworthy actions.
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Kant would say…

 We have responsibilities and duties.

 Some things are “right” and some are “wrong” regardless of whether we agree
or not.

 Doing “right” will not necessarily be to our advantage. In fact, whether an action
is or is not to our advantage is a very poor way of judging its merits.
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Strengths of Kantian Ethics

▪ In Theory it is based on “pure reason”.

▪ Provides a much needed challenge to moral relativism.
▪ Facilitates ethics based on the big picture.
▪ What is seen as “hypothetical” is really a “logical extension” of consequences.
▪ Takes moral consequences seriously.
▪ Avoids problems caused by the complexity and diversity of human opinion,
culture and need.
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Kant’s Approach to Ethics

 In Kant’s view, happiness does not equal morality. Only a good will have
ultimate moral value. Moral rules should be universal.

➢ Special pleading – rationalizing to ourselves

➢ The golden rule - treat others the way you wish to be treated
➢ Veil of ignorance - imagine the situation from both points of view
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Challenges to Kantian Ethics

▪ “Pure reason”
▪ Lacks compassion.
▪ Leaves no flexibility to take human frailty and diversity into account.
▪ Offers a single moral solution to what is really a complex and diverse problem.
▪ Can be challenged as “essentially hypothetical”.
▪ Can be challenged as being simplistic.
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Contemporary Ethical Theory

 Emphasis on the individual rather than the community.

 Rights rather than duties or responsibilities.
 Harm minimization.
 Relativism (rejection of external authority sources).
 Egoism
 Consequentialism (Teleology = telos = goal)
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Societal Changes

▪ A move from Absolutism to Relativism

▪ Similar shift in Ethics towards the consequentialist approach, where the focus is
on the results or the consequences of the “Act”
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Relativism

▪ Relativism – No real distinction between truth and opinion. Right and wrong are
relative to individual or community opinion.

▪ Subjective and Cultural

• No standards or rules of behavior can be reasonably applied at all times and
all places.
• Actions must be judged as moral depending on the time and culture in which
they take place.
• What is considered moral can change considerably over time within a culture.
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Moral Relativism

❑ Values are determined by the society we grow up in, and there are no universal
values. Moral values are simply customs or conventions that vary from culture to
culture.
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Utilitarianism

▪ Act and Rule

▪ Consequentialist theory
• Attempts to determine whether an action is moral by considering the
consequences.
• Actions are moral if they create the greatest happiness (utility) for the
greatest number of people.
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Two Types of Ethical Choices

▪ Right vs wrong: choosing right from wrong is the easiest

▪ Right vs right
• Situation contains shades of gray i.e. all alternatives have desirable and
undesirable results
• Choosing “the lesser of two evils”
• Objective: make a defensible decision
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Choosing Right from Right

▪ Is it wrong to steal if your child is starving?

o It is right not to steal. It is right not to allow your child to starve.

▪ Is it wrong to lie to an ill friend?

o It is right to tell the truth. It is right to be optimistic when talking to a sick friend

▪ Ethical choice is often complex

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Making Defensible Decisions

▪ First step in ethical decision making is to recognize that an ethical dilemma

exists

▪ “Defensible decision”
▪ Two well-meaning individuals can examine the same situation and arrive at
different courses of action
▪ High-quality ethical decision: based on reason and can be defended according
to ethical concepts

▪ Ethical decision making is not a science. It is however a skill -- a survival skill

Behavioral Model for Ethical Decision Making 32
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Ethics vs. Legality

▪ Actions can be
1. Ethical and legal
2. Ethical but Illegal
3. Not ethical but legal
4. Not ethical and Illegal

▪ If case in 1 or 4, decision is obvious

▪ If case in 2 or 3, or if law is not clear then further analysis is needed.
▪ If law provides answer, no further investigation is needed
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Actions can be…

▪ Ethical and Legal • Not Ethical and Not Legal

✓ Using licensed software ✓ Murder

✓ Obeying speed limit ✓ Sexual harassment

✓ Buying software online ✓ Child porn

▪ Not Ethical and Legal ✓ Downloading music

✓ Gambling ✓ Hacking any sites

✓ Having an affair • Ethical and Not Legal

✓ Prostitution ✓ Vigilante stuff

✓ Visiting adult porn web site ✓ Political activism

✓ Strip clubs ✓ Smacking

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What is the Law’s Place in Morality?

▪ Law is basically legislated morality. The purpose is to enforce penalties and

sanctions upon those who do not act morally.
▪ Laws are usually enacted when either:
1. There is a need to restrain some morally harmful activity.

2. There is a risk that people may do something morally harmful.

3. When voluntary and professional restraints on morality either aren’t working
or the potential outcomes of immoral actions are sufficiently serious as to
concern the whole community.

Progression from Morals to Law
Accepted
Moral
constraints
Quasi legal authority.
Enforced outside of the legal
system. These behavioral
constraints are agreed by the
individual’s “Professional Body”
and enforced by professional
sanctions.
constraints are agreed by the
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No legal force. However,
these behavioral constraints
Professional are agreed by “Community
Codes of Ethics & Consensus” and enforced by
Good Practice relational sanctions.
Legislative
Legal authority. Codified
Constraints on
and enacted by Parliament.
business
Enforced by the justice
practice
system. These moral
whole community and given
“teeth” by the Law.
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Professional Codes of Ethics

▪ What characteristics mark a profession?

➢ Must have:
✓ Extensive training
✓ Intellectual skills
✓ Ability to provide an important service in society
➢ Might have:
✓ Certification or licensing requirement
✓ Organization of members
✓ Autonomy
✓ Code of Ethics
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Computer Ethics vs Regular Ethics

➢ Is there an ethical difference between browsing through someone’s computer

files and browsing through her desk drawer?
➢ No difference

➢ New technologies can make them seem different

➢ Technology makes some unethical actions easier to take and easier to

conceal
➢ Technology makes it easier for people to be emotionally and physically
distant from the consequences of their actions
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Are “Computer” Ethics different?

➢ Computers may provide more opportunities to breach ethics

▪ Opportunities: much more information is stored electronically now. Payroll
data might be available more easily in a business, for example, whereas in
the past it would have been locked away.
▪ Physical distance means you don't have to open any doors marked Private. “I
only looked at the file, I didn't take it.”
▪ The volume of computer data also links to privacy issues.
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Difficulties posed by computers

▪ Altered relationship
▪ Personal contact reduced and the speed of the communication
▪ Electronic information is more fragile
▪ Easily changed

▪ More vulnerable to unauthorized access

▪ Easily reproduced without affect the original

▪ Protection of information needs conflict with the benefits of information sharing.

▪ Order of magnitude effect
▪ Effort effect
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Order of Magnitude Effect

▪ Many unethical activities that are possible without computers are not done
because
▪ Their limited scope also limits the rewards (e.g. Scam letters)

▪ Computer use greatly increases the “effect” of some activities (e.g. Spam) thus
even a very small hit rate is worthwhile due to the vast (order of magnitude) of
distribution.
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The Effort Effect

▪ In any group of people some will do unethical things provided

✓ There is a reasonable chance of getting away with it.
✓ It is “worth the effort” (rewards greater than costs)

▪ Computers
✓ Reduce the effort for unethical users
✓ Offer anonymity
✓ Appear to provide barriers that make detection difficult
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Why should we care?

▪ Live an authentic life

✓ Integrity
▪ Increase success
✓ Well suited to the kinds of interactions needed for a thriving business
▪ Cultivate inner peace
✓ Calmer and more focused
▪ Creates a stable society
✓ Ethical people working together in coordinated ways.
▪ May help in afterlife
✓ Religious traditions believe ethics is the key to something greater
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Summary

 Ethical decisions impact on the quality of our lives.

 Ethical expectations are all around us and influence our behavior.
 Ethical decisions are complex and may well differ over time.
 Ethical decision making has been studied for centuries.
 Computing provides a space for poor behavior.
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 If you have any questions please send a
message thru LMS chat box or email me at
kvdelara@amaes.edu.ph