Computer, ethics, and Society

INTRODUCTORY NOTES

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

WHAT IS ETHICS (MORALITY)?

WHAT ETHICS IS NOT

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

So, what is this thing called Philosophy anyway? We might begin to answer that question by turning to

etymology, or the study of origins of words. Etymologically, the word “philosophy” came to us from

Classical Greek, by way of the Greek Philosophers Socrates and Plato. In this context, “philosophy”

means ​the lover of wisdom​: a combination of “lover” (​philia​) and “wisdom” (​sophia​). While the designation “philosophy” originally meant to describe the activities carried out by those men and

women who are​ lovers of wisdom​, it has almost always included the activities of systematically questioning and critiquing the nature of thought itself. In other words, philosophy might also be thought

of as ​the activity of thinking about thinking​. As Stanford philosopher David Hills says: “Philosophy is the ungainly attempt to tackle questions that come naturally to children, using methods that come naturally

to lawyers”.

Generally speaking, then, philosophy might be called the critical investigation of thought thinking about

itself, or simply put, thinking about thinking. Traditionally, philosophy has been identified with particular

historical figures and with the activities they performed or principles by which they lived. By each of

these accounts, philosophy is then the love of wisdom, or as some contemporaries would say, the love

of understanding. The 20th century philosopher Wilfrid Sellars put it this way: the point of philosophy is

“to understand how things in the broadest possible sense of the term hang together in the broadest

possible sense of the term”.

I want to suggest to you that philosophy is an activity, and that as an activity, ​we are already doing philosophy​ whether we are aware of it or not. I also want to suggest that anything we can do is worth doing well. If we look to gain a systematic understanding of philosophy, it is helpful to distinguish

different domains of investigation that seek to ask and answer different sorts of questions. So,

contemporary philosophy is often subdivided into five distinct areas:

1. Metaphysics (including ontology)

2. Epistemology

3. Axiology

4. Social & Political Philosophy

5. Logic

1. ​Metaphysics ​(including ontology) investigates the fundamental nature of existence, being, counterfactuals, modality (possibility, necessity, contingency); the mental and physical; space and time;

causation; free will; the existence or nonexitence of supernatural beings or phenomena; mereology

(material constitution, heap paradox); change, and identity.

2. ​Epistemology ​investigates the domain of knowledge; what knowledge is, what it isn’t; what is a belief; justification; the structure of knowledge; the ultimate source of knowledge; evidence, perception,

introspection, imagination, memory, reason, testimony; skepticism and the limits of knowledge;

knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

3. ​Axiology ​is the study of values; ethics and morality; the nature of right and wrong; duty and obligation; virtues; care; justice; beauty; moral responsibility; metaethics; normative ethics; applied

ethics.

4. ​Social & Political Philosophy​ investigates the nature of social and political institutions; the state and the individual; the essence of government; social responsibility; fairness; justice.

5. ​Logic ​is the study of argumentation; the nature of logical consequence, necessity; of validity and invalidity; inductive and deductive inference patterns; truth preservation; formal systems; fallacies.

These five domains represent distinguishable areas of investigation subsumed under the activity of

doing philosophy. Questions asked from within these domains are often labeled ​first-order inquiries​.

Second-order inquiries​ occur when questions from any of the five domains are applied to other areas of inquiry. So, for any given area of inquiry, we can investigate that area with respect to philosophical

analysis, and adding the phrase “philosophy of”:

Area Second-order inquiries

Law philosophy of law

Science philosophy of science

Art philosophy of art

Technology philosophy of technology

Religion philosophy of religion

Computer Science philosophy of computation

WHAT IS ETHICS (MORALITY)?

Ethics is a branch of philosophy, under axiology (the study of values).

Ethics can be defined as the study and application of standards that distinguish between right and

wrong, good and bad. In this course, we will use the terms ‘ethics’ and ‘morals’ synonymously.

There are three branches of Ethics:

1. Applied Ethics

2. Normative Ethics

3. Metaethics

Applied Ethics

Applied Ethics studies ethical dilemmas, issues, and questions as they arise in various practical or

professional contexts. Also called casuistry, Applied Ethics is what we will be doing in this class, by

applying ethics to real cases.

Normative Ethics

Normative Ethics studies general theories and principles of ethics that can be applied to practical

situations. The ethical theories we will use are normative theories, or normative ethics. When you apply

Normative Ethics to cases, you are then doing Applied Ethics.

Rights Justice

Utilitarianism/Consequentialism Care Ethics

Deontology/Kantian Ethics Virtue Ethics

Metaethics

Metaethics studies the meaning of ethical concepts, theories, and principles. When you study the

meaning of ethical concepts, you question the meaning and the limitations of those concepts. You can

even question if there can be a good or complete ethical theory at all.

Why study Applied Ethics?

It’s important to realize that Applied Ethics isn’t an exact science, but that fact alone doesn’t imply

that doing Applied Ethics isn’t hard.​ Rather, it makes doing Applied Ethics even more difficult.

This is because we have no singular agreement about which ethical theory fits best in all cases. As a

branch of philosophy, a highlight of ethical analysis demands that we use logic to make our ethical views

clearer in our own minds, and to have a strong voice when we need to communicate important ethical

considerations. It is also a way for you to learn to reflect upon and make explicit your own assumptions

about what values you hold to, and perhaps why you hold to the values that you do. This is important

for every person who is to be considered educated, so that you can make your own informed ethical

decisions. These are the skills this course is meant to provide.

WHAT ETHICS IS NOT

Ethics is closely related to law...

Laws are standards of conduct enforced by power of government.

Laws usually reflect many of the moral values of society.

E.g., our society values honesty, so fraud is illegal.

Laws give us what a society holds as necessary rules of ethical conduct.

E.g., we hold that murder, rape, etc. are wrong. We all believe these actions are intolerable

behaviors. We believe that it is necessary to our society that these acts not be allowed, and our

laws reflect this belief. The important point here is necessary rules; rules that we feel are

ethically essential.

Laws can even change the moral values of a society.

...laws, however, are not ethics.

Often, rules of law are a minimum of ethical conduct.

E.g., we believe that identity theft is morally wrong but our laws controlling identity theft and

protecting those who suffer identity theft are minimal.

Some actions may be legal but unethical...

E.g., Jim Crow Laws.

...some actions may be ethical but illegal.

E.g., When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus.

Laws rarely go beyond the minimum, especially when laws pertain to business, and most especially

when laws pertain to technology.

E.g., Technology is cutting edge, and often develops much faster than governments can write

and pass laws. Technology is often many steps ahead of what lawmakers know about

technology (Lawmakers are not usually trained in technical fields).

Because of these factors, our laws give us minimum protection from those who use technology

unethically. Of course, spamming and identity theft are two very obvious examples of how laws lag

behind what we know to be unethical.

Ethics is not social code.

Here in the Bay Area we live alongside people from every race, country, and religion. We learn tolerance

and we value tolerance. We believe that we should try to understand people from other cultures. We

should not be too quick to morally judge other cultures. This tolerance is important and ethical, but just

because we should not be too quick to judge others, this should not mean that there is no universal

ethics, an ethics of all humanity.

Ethics is not mere social convention or custom.

ETHICAL RELATIVISM wrongly claims that Ethics is mere social convention or custom, and that ethical

standards are relative to particular societies or cultures.

● Ethical Relativism does not allow for a global human culture, and it fails to see that indeed there is a global human culture.

● Ethical Relativism does not allow for ethical progress. ● Ethical Relativism does not allow for criticism of your own culture and the ethical practices of

your culture.

Ethics is not minimal compliance with one’s Professional Code of Ethics.

Here in the U.S. almost every profession now has a Professional Code of Ethics.

● Not all rules of a professional code are moral rules. ● Sometimes the rules in professional codes are just expediencies, designed to turn the most

profit.

● Some rules of professional codes might prove unethical in some circumstances.

So, be aware: ethics should not be confused with the law, mere social codes or customs, or professional

codes. Instead, it is the principles we can derive from the study of ethics that provide the ethical

foundation for laws, social beliefs, and professional codes. Sometimes the laws, social beliefs, or

professional codes do not stand up to what we know to be ethical. We use moral reasoning to argue for

changes to laws, changes to social beliefs, and changes to professional codes. So, do not use laws to

justify your ethical claims about a case. Do not claim that something is ethical as stated by the

Constitution. Do not claim something is ethical because a law says it is. In ethics, you are required to

prove that the law is ethical by explaining the ethics. You cannot prove the ethics by appealing to a law.

As we learn to apply different ethical theories, some will be obviously good fits in certain cases whereas

some will not. Over the course of the term, you will learn to identify ethical principles as they arise in the

context of our subject matter, especially when it becomes obvious that there are tensions between

competing ethical principles.