INTRODUCTION TO
ETHICAL THINKING AND
THE ETHICAL BRAIN
LECTURE 01 BY DR. HOWARD BAKER
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• How much thinking have you done lately about being ethical?
• I hope this class will stir up some thinking about ethics, and in
particular, your ethical behavior!
• We see politicians, who have no problem lying and doing all sorts of
unethical financial dealings.
• Let me first give you a general definition of ethic decision making.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• Ethical decision making is the process of identifying a problem,
generating alternatives, and choosing among them so that the
alternative selected maximizes the most important ethical values
while also achieving the intended goal.
• Do you see yourself as an ethical person?
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• Where did you learn how to make
ethical decisions?
• Was it at home from your parents?
• Was it in grade school or high
school?
• Was it in another college course?
• Was it from being with your friends
and peers?
• Was it from a seminar you took or a
book you read?
• Was it from a job?
• Was it in a religious organization?
• Maybe it was a combination of some
or all of these.
• Or, maybe you think that ethical
thinking comes naturally, as part of
the genetic code?
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• As a college professor, I have been very interested in ethics for several years.
• Prior to my teaching career I was an internal auditor. As an internal auditor and
fraud examiner I had developed what you might call a Third Ear when it comes to
ethical behavior and human reasoning. I had to sharpen my ability to detect
patterns of deception, fraud, and secret agendas, as well as honest but wrong
ethical thinking.
• I often had to deal with organizational politics, two-faced individuals, and even
criminals while maintaining a high degree of professional conduct.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• This semester we will be examining Ethics in a Computing
Culture in this class.
• As you are probably aware, the computer and the Internet have
created many new ethical challenges, ranging from hacking, identity
thief, and loss of privacy, to distribution of child pornography and
cyber-bullying.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• One important aspect of ethical problem solving is correctly defining
the problem.
• I often faced that challenge as an auditor. I had to move past
symptoms and address root causes, often not apparent to others.
• When doing ethical problem solving, an important factor is
the amount of time taken to analyze the problem at hand.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• When we quickly make decisions, we often skip more reliable analytical choices
and go for quick judgment, which often proves to be flawed.
• Often quick decisions ignore future unintended consequences.
• Unintended consequences from poorly made ethical decisions are often revealed
at a much later time.
• By then we are faced with only bad alternatives as a response. It then comes
down to selecting the “lesser of the evils”.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• A decision usually results in action, but prior to action there should be proper
analysis of the various choices and alternative outcomes.
• Strategic ethical decision making considers the long-range consequences of the
alternative choices in order to avoid trouble later.
• During this course you may discover that many, who think they are acting
ethically, really are not.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• My experience has been that unethical people often want to rush others to quickly
make important decisions by creating artificial time constraints.
• We are all familiar with the salesmen that say, "I can't do this all day, but if you will
buy in the next 20 minutes.....“
• Or the car salesman that says that the deal he is offering is “only for today”.
• They want you to make a quick decision based more on emotion than on sound
reason and input from others.
• Too often we don’t seek input from other sources.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• However, unethical people are more than happy to provide you quickly with their
reasons why you need to act right now.
• They want to commandeer your thinking to achieve their own end.
• One on-line commentator stated:
• “Zeal is often a good thing and a powerful motivating force, but it must be
tempered by wisdom and discernment. Mindless haste will just lead us into
trouble.”
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• The Golden Rule teaches us that the way to treat others should be based on the very
same principles that we hold dear, such as respect, human dignity, kindness, cooperation,
generosity, forgiveness, commitment, discipline, sacrifice, due process, humility, honesty,
fairness, and service.
• The Golden Rule promotes what is called a principle-centered culture.
• A culture that is not aligned with these and other principles will be a culture that is
politicized, devoid of genuine service, and will probably behave unethically under
pressure.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• These principles serve as a moral compass to guide decisionmaking.
• Character is the result of living by timeless principles, and is the
starting point to building an ethical, principle-centered culture.
• We will be studying a culture – a culture that involves computing.
• But what is a culture?
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• Edgar H. Schein is the author of Organizational Culture and Leadership. He is
Professor Emeritus of the Sloan School of Business at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT).
• Culture for a group can be defined as “a pattern of shared basic assumptions that
was learned by a group as it solved its problems of external adaptation and
internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and,
therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and
feel in relation to those problems.” (page 17)
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• “Culture and leadership are two sides of the same coin, in that leaders first create
cultures when they create groups and organizations.
• Once cultures exist, they determine the criteria for leadership and thus determine
who will or will not be a leader. But if elements of a culture become dysfunctional,
it is the unique function of leadership to be able to perceive the functional and
dysfunctional elements of the existing culture and to manage cultural evolution
and change in such a way that the group can survive in a changing environment.
• The bottom line for leaders is that if they do not become conscious of the culture
in which they are embedded, those cultures will manage them.” (page 22-23)
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• Leadership creates and
changes culture, while
management and
administration act within a
culture. (page 11)
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• Let us begin with the most basic element of ethical thinking - we must look within.
• In his book, Thinking for a Change, Michael Gelb states:
• "For the necessary changes to occur, we must look within, questioning our habits
of responding to the world... Before we can transform organizations, we must
transform ourselves…. "We must uncover our own prejudices, pecking-order
behaviors, and stereotyped, automatic reactions… "We must be self-reflective
and seeking the truth, however uncomfortable it may be."
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• James Allen, born in England in
1864, has been called a literary man
of mystery. Little is known about him,
and his writing career was as fleeting
as an arrow through the sky. He
never achieved fame or fortune, and
he died at forty-eight.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• Allen wrote nineteen or twenty books, and none sold particularly well in his
lifetime.
• However, in 1903 Allen published his third and most famous book: As a Man
Thinketh.
• Loosely based on the Biblical passage of Proverbs 23:7, "As a man thinketh in his
heart, so is he," the small work eventually became read around the world and
brought Allen posthumous fame as one of the pioneering figures of modern
inspirational thought during the last 100 years.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• Allen’s point was that we are what we think, and our lives run in the
direction of our thoughts.
• The person’s mind is like a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or
allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must bring
forth.
• Our thoughts are the most important thing about us. All that we
achieve or fail to achieve is the direct result of our thinking.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• It is foundational to begin our course addressing ethical decision
making by examining how we think, reason, and see the world.
• Figuring out what is right or wrong involves our reasoning.
• Normative theories of ethics or “moral theories” are meant to help
us figure out what actions are right and wrong.
• Popular normative theories include utilitarianism, the categorical
imperative, and Aristotelian virtue ethics, to mention a few.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• This course concerns itself with practical reason, which is reasoning
used to make decisions.
• Moral theory is a way of defining morality.
• Morality is the set of standards everyone (every rational person at
his/her rational best) wants everyone else to follow even if their following
them means having to do the same.
• Ethics is a set of morally permissible standards of a group that each
member of the group (at his/her rational best) wants every other member
to follow even if their doing so would mean that he/she must do the same.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• Rational means the thinking is based on, or in accordance with, reason or
logic.
• Synonyms for rational are intelligent, reasonable, reasoning, and thinking.
• Notice, for instance, how the categorical imperative moral theory asks
us to act.
• It asks us to behave in a rational way that would be rational for anyone.
• This course concerns itself with practical reason, which is reasoning used
to make decisions.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• To deliberate is to think about or discuss issues and decisions
carefully.
• For instance:
• “The jury deliberated for several days before reaching a verdict.”
• Deliberation is a form of practical reasoning.
• Over the semester we shall do a lot of deliberating.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
Freewill vs Determinism
 The free will vs determinism debate revolves around the extent to which our behavior is the result of forces over which we
have no control or whether people can decide for themselves whether to act or behave in a certain way.
 The determinist approach proposes that all behavior has a cause and is thus predictable. Free will is an illusion, and our
behavior is governed by internal or external forces over which we have no control.
 Hard determinism sees free will as an illusion and believes that every event and action has a cause.
 Soft determinism represents a middle ground, people do have a choice, but that choice is constrained by external or internal
factors.
 Free will is the idea that we are able to have some choice in how we act and assumes that we are free to choose our behavior,
in other words we are self determined.
 The deterministic paradigm comes primarily from the study of animals–rats, monkeys, pigeons, and dogs–and neurotic and
psychotic people.
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
Proactivity vs Reactivity
• Proactivity means more than simply taking the initiative; it means that as human beings,
we are responsible for our own lives.
• Reactive people, as opposed to proactive people, blame others for their circumstances,
for instance:
• their grandparents for their bad temper, it’s in their DNA (Genetic determinism),
• their parents for their shyness, due to a particular upbringing (Psychic determinism),
• their boss, their spouse or the economic situation for having a negative effect on them
(Environmental determinism).
(Source: Dr. Stephen R. Covey – The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING AND THE ETHICAL BRAIN
ADDITION THINGS TO CONSIDER FROM THE ETHICAL BRAIN
• Do we have “free will”? (nature, nurture, & victim mindset)
• Is John Locke’s theory of free will correct that we may not have
“free will” but rather “free won’t”?
• Is David Hume correct when he says that even if determinism
exists in the brain, a person can still act freely? Are emotions
(feelings, and desires) impressions rather than ideas?
• A. J. Ayer put forth the idea of “soft determinism” where the
brain is determined but the person is free. Is our freedom found
in the interaction of the social world? (brain, mind, and personal
responsibility)
• What do powerful brain imaging technologies mean for privacy
and for self-incrimination?
LECTURE 01
INTRODUCTION TO ETHICAL THINKING
The End
Lecture 01