PROFESSIONAL ETHICS
IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
CD5590
LECTURE 4
Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic
Department of Computer Science and
Engineering
Mälardalen University
2006
1
Overview
Planning for the course
Conscience
Ethical Egoism
Immanuel Kant’s Deontological* Ethics
Utilitarianism
Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.
Director, The Values Institute
University of San Diego
* ‘deon’ = duty
2
Examination deadlines



Complete file with class notes sent by mail before last lecture.
Preparing lecture and Leading Discussion
[According to the Lecture schedule]
Research Paper
- First draft: 1 Dec.
- Final version: 15 Dec.
3
A skeleton paper
From:
http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ct3340/ht03/slidespdf.pdf
Title, author and affiliations
Abstract
Introduction
Background information
Problem definition
Related work
Method
Results
Summary and conclusions
[Acknowledgements]
References
[Appendix]
4
The title







Must be informative, clear, and meaningful.
Don’t be clever or cryptic.
Get the attention of your readers immediately.
Bad: The effects of stress
Good: Is stress killing you?
Or: Stress: Is it killing you?
Imagine someone searching for your paper.
5
The abstract (read by 87%)




Summarizes problem, result, and uses.
Between 100–250 words.
Avoid references and acronyms.
Try to “sell” the paper!
6
Introduction (read by 43%)



Explains the background/significance of the paper.
The opening paragraph should be your best paragraph.
Ended by a summary of the organization of the paper.
7
Problem definition



A concise statement of the problem you are discussing
Why it is important to address the problem?
Justify and argue for your view/solution to this problem
8
Related work






Identify relevant related work (with references)
References must bepossible to find
Avoid “personal communication”.
Compare your work with previous work.
You must convince the reader that your work is original!
Examples and case studies are great for this.
9
Summary and Conclusion
(read by 55%)





Interpretation of your work: pros & cons.
Limitations of your work
Suggestions for future work
Experiences.
Don’t just re-word the abstract!!
10
References


Make sure all references are refered to.
Format of the reference depends on the type of publication.
– Books: author, title, publisher, ISBN, year.
– Journal: author, title, journal, volume, month, pages.
– Report: author, title, source, year.
11
Conscience
Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.
Director, The Values Institute
University of San Diego
12
The Seven Essential Virtues
defining “Moral IQ”







Empathy
Conscience
Self-Control
Respect
Tolerance
Fairness
Kindness







Wisdom*
Courage*
Temperance*
Justice*
Integrity
Responsibility
Honesty
13
*Aristotles cardinal virtues
Unity of Virtues?
Responsibly in a professional role

Aristotle defended a strong “unity of virtue" thesis - the unity of
the four cardinal virtues (wisdom, courage, temperance, and
justice).

Today most ethicists would agree in sharply rejecting the unity
of virtue.
14
Unity of Virtues?
Responsibly in a professional role

Character is invariably riddled with "moral gaps“. Character
traits are situation-sensitive, moral virtues are enormously
varied (and sometimes in conflict), and both situations and
personalities vary enormously.
(Owen Flanagan in the Varieties of Moral Personality)
15
Unity of Virtues?
Responsibly in a professional role

Moral gaps arise not only from having some virtues (for example
generosity) and lacking others (truthfulness), but in manifesting
the same virtues in some contexts, roles, or dimensions of roles,
but not others.
16
Unity of Virtues?
Responsibly in a professional role



Clearly a person's character is relevant to their acting
responsibly in a professional role.
The most important of these are humaneness, self-control,
general responsibility, and honesty (both trustworthiness and
truthfulness).
Professionals generally are placed in positions of trust, serving
an important need of client or society. The specific importance
of trust is broad-based and in varying degrees open-ended.
17
The Origins of Conscience



Etymology:
cum + scire = to know with
As science (scire) means knowledge, conscience etymologically
means self-knowledge . . .
But the English word implies a moral standard of action in the
mind as well as a awareness of our own actions.
18
Conscience




The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct
together with the urge to prefer right over wrong.
A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement.
Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct.
The part of the superego in psychoanalysis that judges the ethical
nature of one's actions and thoughts.
19
The Origins of Conscience

Present in most cultures:
– Ancient Egyptians urged not to transgress against the
dictates of the heart, for one "must stand in fear of departing
from its guidance."
– The Hindus considered conscience to be "the invisible God
who dwells within us.”
– The Society of Friends (or Quakers) places particular
emphasis on the role of conscience.
20
Characteristics of Conscience



Conscience is the steering-gear and a corrective mechanism
that forces us to act in accordance with our ethical norms
Both negative (remorse, guilt, regret) and positive (good, clear
conscience)
Usually only a guide to one’s own behavior - not oriented toward
judging others
21
Medieval Background


Conscience is the power of reason
and discernment applied to moral
issues
Develop an informed and sensitive
conscience by living in a Christian
community (defining the norm)
22
The Central Question

If conscience represents the urge to conform to moral principals,
what happens in case of conflicting principles?
How to reconcile
– Loyalty to the friend
– Loyalty to society
in case when there is a conflict between the two?
23
Deadlock in Conscience
The case of Huck and Jim

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
Huck is faced with the dilemma of
turning in his friend Jim, a runaway
slave.
• Huck would despise himself if he
turned Jim in
• Huck feels he is going against his
conscience by not turning Jim into
the authorities
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
(born Samuel L Clemens)
Mark Twain, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
(Tom Sawyer'sComrade)
http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/finn/finntitl.html (e-book)
24
Conscience in Professional Life

Issues about private conscience in professional life are
notoriously complex. How far should we allow private
conscience to guide professional conduct when it departs
from the moral consensus expressed in the relevant code
of ethics?
25
Conscience in Professional Life

We all agree, for example, that college professors should have
great freedom to express their views. Academic freedom is
central to what college professors are supposed to be.

But what about an atheist philosopher who grades down a
student for defending religion in an essay? The professor is
wrong, of course. The question is what should we, his
colleagues, do about it?

Here, I think, a code of ethics is essential in setting and
enforcing standards-even though codes are always vague and
incomplete.
26
Conscience in Professional Life

What does it require by way of setting aside personal values in
order to meet professional responsibilities, to avoid greed,
sexual dominance, paternalism, or conflicts of interest, and
otherwise to meet minimum standards for practice of the
profession?
27
“Jag är inte bara mamma utan även tandläkare.”
(I am not only a mother but also a dentist.)
28
The Freudian Critique of Conscience
Sigmund Freud (1932)
The Anatomy of the Mental
Personality

• ID (instinctive part, driven by
pleasure and pain, fully
unconscious )
• EGO (mostly conscious,
deals with external reality )
• SUPER-EGO (partly
conscious, is the conscience
or the internal moral judge. )
29
The Freudian Critique of Conscience

Freud’s saw conscience as the voice
of the superego
– Initially, the internalized voice of
parental restrictions
– Later, the internalization of societal
prohibitions
– Almost exclusively negative, saying
“no” to the id.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
30
Ethical Egoism
31
Be My Valentine?

“Love, we are repeatedly taught, consists of self-sacrifice. Love
based on self-interest, we are admonished, is cheap and sordid.
True love, we are told, is altruistic. But is it?

Genuine love is the exact opposite. It is the most selfish
experience possible, in the true sense of the term: it benefits
your life in a way that involves no sacrifice of others to yourself
nor of yourself to others.”
Gary Hull
Valentine’s Day, 1998
Ayn Rand Institute
32
Ethical Egoism

Selfishness is praised as a virtue
– Ayn Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness


May appeal to psychological egoism as a
foundation
Often very compelling for high school students
Ayn Rand (1905-1982).
(born Alice Rosenbaum)
33
Versions of Ethical Egoism



Personal Ethical Egoism
– “I am going to act only in my own interest, and everyone else
can do whatever they want.”
Individual Ethical Egoism
– “Everyone should act in my own interest.”
Universal Ethical Egoism
– “Each individual should act in his or her own self interest.”
34
Altruism


Unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness, charity,
generosity.
Zoology. Instinctive cooperative behavior that is detrimental
(harmful) to the individual but contributes to the survival of the
species.
35
Arguments for Ethical Egoism



Altruism is demeaning
Acting selfishly creates a better world
It doesn’t result in such a different world after all
demean = degrade oneself
36
Argument for Ethical Egoism:
Altruism Is Demeaning
Friedrich Nietzsche argued that altruism
was demeaning because it meant that
an individual was saying that some other
person was more important than that
individual.
Nietzsche saw this as depreciation of
oneself, putting oneself down by valuing
oneself less than the other.
Comment. Concern for the welfare of
others does not mean no concern for
ones own self!
Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844-1900)
37
Argument for Ethical Egoism: Acting
Selfishness Creates a Better World
Ethical egoists sometimes maintain that if each person took care of
himself/herself, the overall effect would be to make the world a
better place for everyone.
– Epistemological: Each person is best suited to know his or
her own best interests.
– Moral: Helping others makes them dependent, which
ultimately harms them.
Comment. It is rational for people to solve together their
common problems. Building e.g. state institutions, that exist
everywhere in the world means putting energy in a common
societal project that is not in the first place meant to satisfy my
own personal needs.
38
Argument for Ethical Egoism:
Ethical egoism doesn’t result in a different world.

This argument presupposes the people in fact already act
selfishly (i.e, psychological egoism) and are just pretending to
be altruistic.

If psychological egoism is true, then we should admit its truth
and get rid of our hypocrisy.
Comment. It may not make a big difference in a world of
independent, strong and healthy adults, but in a world with
children and people at risk or in need, they would be put in
further jeopardy.
39
Criticism of Ethical Egoism




Cannot be consistently universalized. (But can work in sports
and number of purely competitive disciplines!).
Presupposes a world of strangers indifferent to one another.
Difficult to imagine love or even friendship between ethical
egoists.
Seems to be morally insensitive.
40
Universalizing Ethical Egoism


Can the ethical egoist consistently will that everyone else follow
the tenets of ethical egoism?
– It seems to be in one’s self-interest to be selfish oneself and
yet get everyone else to act altruistically (especially if they
act for your benefit). This leads to individual ethical egoism.
Some philosophers such as Jesse Kalin have argued that in
sports we consistently universalize ethical egoism: we intend to
win, but we want our opponents to try as hard as they can!
41
Ethical Egoism:
A philosophy for a world of strangers

Some philosophers have argued that ethical egoism is, at best,
appropriate to living in a world of strangers that you do not care
about.
42
Egoism, Altruism, and
the Ideal World



Aristotle
Ideally, we seek a society in
“Self-interest
Kant
which self-interest and regard for
High
rightly understood”
others converge—the green
Altruism
zone.
Self-interest
Egoism at the expense of others
Self-sacrificing
and regard
and altruism at the expense of
altruism
for others
self-interest both create worlds in
converge
which goodness and self-regard
Low
High
Egoism
Egoism
are mutually exclusive—the
yellow zone.
Not beneficial
Self-interest
either to self
at the expense
No one want the red zone, which
or others
of others
is against both self-interest and
regard for others.
Low
Hobbes’s
Drug addiction
Altruism
Alcoholism, etc.
State of Nature,
Nietzsche?
43
Sinking Titanic: Egoism vs. Altruism
(Even risks in technical systems)
44
Immanuel Kant
The Ethics of Duty
(Deontological* Ethics)
* ‘deon’ = duty
45
Living by Rules


Most of us live by rules much of the
time.
Some of these are what Kant called
Categorical Imperatives.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
46
Categorical Imperatives

Always act in such a way that the maxim of your action can be
willed as a universal law of humanity.
Immanuel Kant
47
The Ethics of Respect
One of Kant’s most lasting contributions to moral philosophy
was his emphasis on the notion of respect (Achtung).
48
The Ethics of Respect


Respect has become a fundamental moral concept in
contemporary West
– There are rituals of respect in almost all cultures.
Two central questions:
– What is respect?
– Who or what is the proper object of respect?
49
Kant on Respect
“Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether
in your own person or in the person of any other, never
simply as a means, but always at the same time as an
end.”
50
Kant on Respecting Persons



Kant brought the notion of respect (Achtung) to the center of
moral philosophy for the first time.
To respect people is to treat them as ends in themselves. He
sees people as autonomous, i.e., as giving the moral law to
themselves.
The opposite of respecting people is treating them as mere
means to an end.
51
Using People as Mere Means

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments
– More than four hundred African
American men infected with
syphilis went untreated for four
decades in a project the
government called the Tuskegee
Study of Untreated Syphilis in the
Negro Male.
– Continued until 1972
52
Treating People as Ends in
Themselves
What are the characteristics of treating people as ends in
themselves?
 Not denying them relevant information
 Allowing them freedom of choice
53
Additional Cases





Plant Closing
Firing Employees
Medical Experimentation on Prisoners
Medical Donations by Prisoners
Medical Consent Forms
54
What Is the Proper Object of
Respect?


For Kant, the proper object of respect is the will. Hence,
respecting a person involves issues related to the will knowledge and freedom.
Other possible objects of respect:
– Feelings and emotions
– The dead
– Animals
– The natural world
55
Self-Respect

Is lack of proper self-respect a moral failing?

The Deferential* Wife
– See article by Tom Hill, “Servility and Self-Respect”
*Deferential = Respectful, considerate
56
Self-Respect

Aristotle and Self-Love
– What is the difference between self-respect and selflove? Clearly, there is at least a difference in the
affective element.
57
The Kantian Heritage
What Kant Helped Us to See Clearly



The Admirable Side of Acting from Duty
– The person of duty remains committed, not matter how
difficult things become.
The Evenhandedness of Morality
– Kantian morality does not play favorites.
Respecting Other People
– The notion of treating people as ends in themselves is
central to much of modern ethics.
58
The Kantian Heritage
Critique of Kant´s Deontology


The Neglect of Moral Integration
– The person of duty can have deep and conflicting
inclinations and this does not decrease moral worth—
indeed, it seems to increase it in Kant’s eyes.
The Role of Emotions
– For Kant, the emotions are always suspect because they are
changeable.
59
The Kantian Heritage
Critique of Kant´s Deontology

The Place of Consequences in the Moral Life
– In order to protect the moral life from the changing of moral
luck, Kant held a very strong position that refused to attach
moral blame to individuals who were acting with good will,
even though some indirect bad consequences could be
foreseen.
60
The Kantian Heritage
Conclusion
Overall, after two hundred years, Kant remains an absolutely
central figure in contemporary moral philosophy, one from
whom we can learn much even when we disagree with him.
61
Utilitarianism
62
Basic Insights of Utilitarianism

The purpose of morality is to make the world a better place.

We should do whatever will bring the most benefit to all of
humanity.
63
The Purpose of Morality


The utilitarian has a simple answer to the question of why morality
exists at all:
– The purpose of morality is to guide people’s actions in such a
way as to produce a better world.
Consequently, the emphasis in utilitarianism is on consequences,
not intentions.
(At times, the road to hell is pawed with good intentions)
64
Fundamental Imperative

The fundamental imperative of utilitarianism is:
Always act in the way that will produce the greatest overall
amount of good in the world.
65
The Emphasis on the Overall Good

Utilitarianism is a demanding moral position that often asks us to
put aside self-interest for the sake of the whole.
– It always asks us to do the most, to maximize utility, not to do
the minimum.
– It asks us to set aside personal interest.
66
The Dream of Utilitarianism:
Bringing Scientific Certainty to Ethics

Utilitarianism offers a powerful vision of the moral life, one that
promises to reduce or eliminate moral disagreement.
– If we can agree that the purpose of morality is to make the
world a better place; and
– If we can scientifically assess various possible courses of
action to determine which will have the greatest positive
effect on the world; then
– We can provide a scientific answer to the question of what
we ought to do.
67
Standards of Utility:
Intrinsic Value



Many things have instrumental value, that is, they have value as
means to an end.
However, there must be some things which are not merely
instrumental, but have value in themselves. This is what we call
intrinsic value.
What has intrinsic value? Four principal candidates:
– Pleasure - Jeremy Bentham
– Happiness - John Stuart Mill
– Ideals - George Edward Moore
– Preferences - Kenneth Arrow
68
Jeremy Bentham
1748-1832

Bentham believed that we should try
to increase the overall amount of
pleasure in the world.
69
Pleasure


Definition: The enjoyable
feeling we experience when a
state of deprivation is replaced
by fulfillment.
Advantages
– Easy to quantify
– Short duration
– Bodily

Criticisms
– Came to be known as
“the pig’s philosophy”
– Ignores spiritual values
– Could justify living on a
pleasure machine or
“happy pill”
70
John Stuart Mill
1806-1873


Bentham’s godson
Believed that happiness, not
pleasure, should be the standard of
utility.
71
Happiness

Advantages
– A higher standard, more
specific to humans
– About realization of goals

Disadvantages
– More difficult to measure
– Competing conceptions
of happiness
72
Lets make everyone happy!
May this help?
Happy pill as a universal solution?
73
Ideal Values



G. E. Moore suggested that we should
strive to maximize ideal values such
as freedom, knowledge, justice, and
beauty.
The world may not be a better place
with more pleasure in it, but it certainly
will be a better place with more
freedom, more knowledge, more
justice, and more beauty.
Moore’s candidates for intrinsic good
remain difficult to quantify.
G. E. Moore
1873-1958
74
Preferences

Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel Prize winning
Stanford economist, argued that what
has intrinsic value is preference
satisfaction.

The advantage of Arrow’s approach is
that, in effect, it lets people choose for
themselves what has intrinsic value.
It simply defines intrinsic value as
whatever satisfies an agent’s
preferences. It is elegant and
pluralistic.
KENNETH J. ARROW
Stanford University
Professor of Economics (Emeritus)
75
The Utilitarian Calculus


Math and ethics finally merged: all
consequences must be measured and
weighed!
Units of measurement:
– Hedons: positive
– Dolors: negative
76
What do we calculate?

Hedons/dolors defined in terms of
– Pleasure
– Happiness
– Ideals
– Preferences
77
What do we calculate?

For any given action, we must calculate:
– How many people will be affected, negatively
(dolors) as well as positively (hedons)
– How intensely they will be affected
– Similar calculations for all available alternatives
– Choose the action that produces the greatest
overall amount of utility (hedons minus dolors)
78
How much can we quantify?


Pleasure and preference satisfaction are easier to quantify than
happiness or ideals
Two distinct issues:
– Can everything be quantified?
The danger: if it can’t be counted, it doesn’t count.
– Are quantified goods necessarily commensurable?
Are a fine dinner and a good night’s sleep commensurable?
79
“…the problems of three little people don’t
amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”
Utilitarianism doesn’t always have a
cold and calculating face—we
perform utilitarian calculations in
everyday life.
80
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
1. Responsibility


Utilitarianism suggests that we are responsible for all the
consequences of our choices.
The problem is that sometimes we can not foresee
consequences of other people’s actions that are taken in
response to our own acts. Are we responsible for those actions,
even though we don’t choose them or approve of them?
81
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
2. Integrity


Utilitarianism often demands that we put aside self-interest.
Sometimes this may mean putting aside our own moral
convictions.
Integrity may involve certain identity-conferring commitments,
such that the violation of those commitments entails a violation
of who we are at our core.
82
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
3. Intentions

Utilitarianism is concerned almost exclusively about
consequences, not intentions.
– There is a version of utilitarianism called “motive
utilitarianism,” developed by Robert Adams, that attempts to
correct this.
83
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
4. Moral Luck

By concentrating exclusively on consequences,
utilitarianism makes the moral worth of our actions a
matter of luck. We must await the final consequences
before we find out if our action was good or bad.

This seems to make the moral life a matter of chance,
which runs counter to our basic moral intuitions.
84
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
5. Who does the calculating?

Historically, this was an issue for the British in India. The British
felt they wanted to do what was best for India, but that they were
the ones to judge what that was.
– See Ragavan Iyer, Utilitarianism and All That

Typically, the count differs depending on who does the counting
85
Criticisms of Utilitarianism
6. Who is included?

When we consider the issue of consequences, we must ask
who is included within that circle.

Classical utilitarianism has often claimed that we should
acknowledge the pain and suffering of animals and not restrict
the calculus just to human beings.
86
Concluding Assessment

Utilitarianism is most appropriate for policy decisions, as long as
a strong notion of fundamental human rights guarantees that it
will not violate rights of minorities, otherwise it is possible to use
to justify outvoting minorities.
87