PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
CDT409
LECTURE 2
Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Mälardalen University
2007
1
LECTURE1 HIGHLIGHTS
Course Preliminaries
Basic Moral Orientations Overview, 1
LECTURE2
Basic Moral Orientations Overview, 2
Relativism, Absolutism, Pluralism
2
Planning for the course
Examination

RESEARCH PAPER
Choose paper title now!
Papers are written individually.
Topics should be specific for everyone.
3
Basic Moral
Orientations
Overview 1
4
On What Basis Do We Make Moral
Decisions?

Divine Command -- “Do what the sacred book tells
you” - 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 -- Categoric imperativ

Ethical Egoism -- “Watch out for #1”
5
On What Basis Do We Make Moral
Decisions?

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
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Moral Reason versus Moral Feeling

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Morality is strictly a matter of rational
judgment: Samuel Clarke
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
We have a moral sense
Samuel Clarke
(1675-1729)
David Hume
(1711-1729)
7
On what basis do we make moral
decisions?

Emotivism/Value nihilism Alfred Jules Ayer (1910-1989), Axel
Hägerström (1868 - 1939). When I say “It is wrong to commit genocide”
I am not making a factual statement. Instead, I am merely expressing
my personal attitudes and feelings.
"X is right" means "I like X."
We pick out our moral principles by following our feelings.
The "Immoral Feelings" Objection: Assume that I like getting drunk and,
while I'm drunk, I like to hurt people and animals.
If emotivism would be true, then it would be morally right for me to hurt
people and animals, as I have right to my personal feelings.
But it is morally wrong to hurt people and animals simply because one
feels like doing so. So the fact that moral judgment is intentional and
not only factual does not make values meaningless.
8
On what basis do we make moral
decisions?

Existentialist Ethics The existentialists emphasize freedom,
individuality and subjectivity .

Nietzsche, F. (Writings include Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Human
All Too Human, etc.)

Sartre, J.P. (Writings include Being and Nothingness, Nausea,
etc.)
9
Evolutionary Ethics

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Human social behavior is an extended development
of 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 non-human 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?
10
11
The Ten Commandments of Computer
Ethics
Computer Ethics Institute
1.
Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
2.
Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer
work.
3.
Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's
computer files.
4.
Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
5.
Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
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6.
Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for
which you have not paid.
7.
Thou shalt not use other people's computer
resources without authorization or proper
compensation.
8.
Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual
output.
9.
Thou shalt think about the social consequences of
the program you are writing or the system you are
designing.
10.
Thou shalt always use a computer in ways that
insure consideration and respect for your fellow
humans.
13
References

Basic material:
– 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://ethics.acusd.edu/relativism.html
14
Basic Moral
Orientations
Overview 2
15
Ethical Relativism,
Absolutism,
and Pluralism
Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.
Director, The Values Institute
University of San Diego
16
Classical Ethical/Cultural Relativism
The Greek Skeptics

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.”
17
Classical Ethical/Cultural Relativism
The Greek Skeptics

Sextus Empiricus (second century AD, Alexandria)
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. Pyrrhonian skepticism –
suspending judgments leads to ataraxa (“peace of
mind”).
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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”
19
Arguments for Ethical Relativism

Cultural Differences Argument
(1) Different cultures have different moral codes.
(2) Moral opinions vary from culture to culture.
(3) Neither opinion is right or wrong.
_____________________________________
There is no objective truth in morality.
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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
21
Three Questions about the Meaning of
Relativism
What part of morality
is relative?
•Behavior
•Peripheral values
Morality is relative.
•Fundamental values
How much of
morality is
relative?
•All
•Most
Relative to
what?
•Individuals
•Cultures
•Nations
•Groups
•Some
22
Relative to what?

Descriptive ethical relativists say that
moral values are relative, but to what:
– Culture
– Nation
– Group
– Individual—subjectivism

How do we individuate cultures?
23
What is relative?

Behavior
– Different behaviors may exemplify the same value
– The same behavior may exemplify different values
in different culture

Core values
– Are there central values found in all cultures?

Peripheral values
– Obviously some culturally-specific values
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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]
25
Ethical Relativism:
Solipsism
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Sometimes we say that we
can’t judge other cultures
because we can’t fully
understand them.
Do we need full understanding
to judge something?
Do we even have full
understanding of ourselves?
Would this eliminate
anthropology as a discipline?
Does it deny a main goal of
multiculturalism?
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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.
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Ethical Relativism:
Overlapping Cultures, 2

The challenge of the
coming century is
precisely overlapping
cultures:
– Multinational corporations
– International media--BBC,
MTV, CNN
– International sports-Olympics
– World Wide Web
28
Ethical Relativism:
Overlapping Cultures, 3

The actual situation
in today’s world is
much closer to the
diagram at the right.
29
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
30
Different kids of clothing
Rembrandt
Monk Reading,
1661
Nuns uniforms
Taliban law requires women in
Afghanistan to wear a chador or
burqa that covers the face and
entire body.
A proper dress for her?
Fencer – protective suit
Astronaut – protective suit
From the solitude of the
Holy Cross Abbey in
Berryville, Virginia, a
monk works as an
electronic scrivener on
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the Internet.
Different kids of clothing
Dieric Bouts - Madonna and Child
Leonardo da Vinci Lady with an
Ermine 1483-90
Catherine of Aragon
in middle age, c. 1525
Jane Seymour by
Holbein,1537
Tudor England dress
32
Arguments Against Ethical Relativism
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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, breaking promises or other commitments at its own peril.
Were the society not to establish some rules against such
behaviors, the society itself would cease to exist.
33
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.
Plato (427-347 BCE)
34
Ethical Absolutism/Universalism/Realism

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.
35
Ethical Absolutism
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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:
– There is a single Truth
– Their position embodies that
truth
Louis XIV
(1638 – 1715)
Louis the Great, The Sun King
36
Ethical Absolutism

Ethical absolutism gets some things right
– We need to make judgments
– Certain things are intolerable

But it gets some things wrong, including:
– Our truth is the truth
– We can’t learn from others
37
Ethical Pluralism (1)

Combines insights of both relativism and
absolutism:
– 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
38
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.
39
Ethical Pluralism (3)

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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.
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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
41
Ethical Pluralism (5)

For each action or
policy, we can place
it in one of three
regions:
– Ideal--Center
– Permitted--Middle
• Respected
• Tolerated
– Prohibited--Outside
42
Five Questions
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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?
43
Developing a Moral Stance
Here’s a way of visualizing these issues:
44
What is the present state?

1) Overall, the actual state of race and
ethnicity in our society is:
–
–
–
–
–

a)
B
c)
d)
e)
Excellent
Very good
Good
Poor
Terrible
2) List three important facts that support your
evaluation in #1
– a)
– b)
– c)
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What is the present state?--#2

#3. What are the three most important
issues facing us in regard to race and
ethnicity today?
– a)
– b)
– c)
46
What is the minimally acceptable
state?

What are the minimum conditions
necessary for a just society in regard to
race and ethnicity? List at least three
characteristics or conditions.
– #1
– #2
– #3
47
What is the ideal state?

What are the ideal conditions necessary
for a just society in regard to race and
ethnicity? List at least three
characteristics or conditions.
– #1
– #2
– #3
48
How should we get from the present
to the minimally acceptable state?

How should we get from the actual
state to the minimally acceptable
state? List specific ways of getting
from the actual state of society to the
minimal conditions listed earlier.
– Examples: laws, taxes, regulations,
protests, civil disobedience
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How should we get from the present
to the ideal state?

How should we get from the actual state
to the ideal state? List specific ways of
getting from the actual state of society
to the ideal conditions listed above.
– Examples: Public relations campaigns,
education, tax incentives, laws
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Appendix
Developing Moral Common Ground
Goals

Understanding
– ourselves
– others
– the issue

Common Ground
– agreement where appropriate
– living with some disagreements
– changing the situation
51