Name: March

12, 2011
Dr. Orlando Malaca
Engineering Ethics

Assignment:

1. Is an approach to ethics that judges the morality of

an action based on the action's adherence to a rule
or rules?
2. Is generally considered the most important
philisopher since Aristotle.
3. He adopted Epicarus basic principle?
4. He discovered that the moral concept develop
differently in young children.
5. The fundamental principle of all morality.
6. The quality that makes humans unique and propels
them into the moral sphere. It is what gives us the
ability to make good choices despite inclinations.
7. Is the thesis that people always acts from selfish
motives, whether they should or not.
8. Is the more controversial thesis that, whether people
always act from selfish motives, they should, if they
want to be moral.
9. The simple observation that different cultures
employ different norms/standards.
10. Is one way of providing a justification for an
evaluation.
Name: March
12, 2011
Dr. Orlando Malaca
Engineering Ethics

Key to Correction
Assignment:

1. Is an approach to ethics that judges the morality of

an action based on the action's adherence to a rule
or rules? Deontology of Ethics
2. Is generally considered the most important
philisopher since Aristotle. Immanuel Kant
3. He adopted Epicarus basic principle? Jeremy
Bentham
4. He discovered that the moral concept develop
differently in young children. Carol Gilligan
5. The fundamental principle of all morality.
Categorical Perspective
6. The quality that makes humans unique and propels
them into the moral sphere. It is what gives us the
ability to make good choices despite inclinations.
Reason
 7. Is the thesis that people always acts from selfish
motives, whether they should or not. Psychological
Egoism
8. Is the more controversial thesis that, whether people
always act from selfish motives, they should, if they
want to be moral. Ethical Egoism
9. The simple observation that different cultures
employ different norms/standards. Cultural
Relativism
10. Is one way of providing a justification for an
evaluation. Standard

Appendix A and B

Ethics – the discipline dealing with good and bad, moral

duty, and obligation
• Moralities/ moral codes – answers to ethical questions
(how should we live our lives, the difference between
right and wrong, etc.)
• differ by time and place
Ex. According to Judeo-Christian morality, “It is wrong to
lie,” while for 8th century BC Greeks, it is not always wrong
to lie, and it’s not always wrong to tell the truth.

• Thinking about ethics mean thinking about the

strengths and weaknesses of moralities,
understanding why we might endorse one morality
and reject another, and searching for better systems
of morality or the “best morality.”
THE KNOTTY QUESTION OF GOODNESS

• Homer (8th century BC) shows

in a story of his epic, The Iliad,

a failure of morality in his own day.

• In Homer’s time, the prevailing

moral code was: “Help to friends

and harm to enemies.”

• The systematic study of moral codes, Ethics, attempts

to answer which moral code is correct when two
different cultures clash in their moral codes, or when
a society is passing from an old moral code to a new
one.

• Socrates (470-399 BC) argued that there was only one

true moral code “ No person should ever willingly do
evil.” He believed that no harm could come to a
person who always sought the good, but he
acknowledged that identifying the good was rarely
easy.

– Socratic Questioning/Dialectic – Socrates’ method

of interrogating which tried to improve
everyone’s thinking about what must and must
not be done.

• Plato ( 427-347 BC), Socrates’ student, was the first

“professional” philosopher in the West: he
established a school of philosophy called the
Academy ( where the word academic is derived from),
published books, and formed arguments on virtually
every subject in philosophy.
 – “All subsequent philosophy is only a footnote to
Plato.”

– Lord Alfred North Whitehead

– He believed that pleasure, peace, flourishing, material

wealth & power, and honor & fame, are examples of
goodness but they were not goodness itself. To be able to
say what is good and bad, we must first identify what
good ness is. We will then judge what is “good” and
“better” by comparing with what’s “best” – the truly and
wholly good.

– Moral Imortance of Standards

• Standard is one way of providing a

justification for an evaluation.

RELATIVISM: “WHY COMMON SENSE” WON’T WORK

• 20th century philosophers argue with moral

“intuitions” or the “consult your conscience”
approach to morality. This approach holds that
the standard for goodness is accessible to all of
us if we think through our decisions carefully
enough.

• There’s a “voice” inside our heads that tells

us what me must do, and that “voice” will
praise the right action and warn you against
the wrong one. The difficulty is that we don’t
always use common sense

• A crippling difficulty with this view is called the

problem of relativism.
 Cultural relativism – the simple observation that
different cultures employ different norms/
standards.

• According to relativism, what is good and bad

depends on people, places, times, and circumstances.
• Moral relativists argue that all norms and values are
relative to the cultures in which they are created and
expressed.
-- They cannot speak of moral progress; moral
values change over time for the relativist, but they do not
improve or degenerate.

EGOISM VS. ALTRUISM

• For an egoist, the good is whatever is pleasing to

him.

• Psychological egoism is the thesis that people

always acts from selfish motives, whether they
should or not.

• Ethical egoism is the more controversial thesis

that, whether people always act from selfish
motives, they should, if they want to be moral.

• Ethical egoists try to create a happy and

moral world by seeking good for themselves

• Altruists argue that the morally correct action always

best serves the interest of others.
DEONTOLOGY - THE ETHICS OF LOGICAL CONSISTENCY
AND DUTY

• Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is generally considered

the most important philosopher since Aristotle.

• His theory, deontology (from the Greek word deon),

meaning duty, argues that doing what is morally right
means doing one’s duty.

• The only thing that is wholly good is good will.

Morality, therefore, comes from our ability to choose.

• Reason – the quality that makes humans unique and

propels them into the moral sphere. It is what gives
us the ability to make good choices despite
inclinations (passions, drives, and desires)

• Categorical perspective – the fundamental principle of

all morality

– “Act on the maxim such that the maxim of your

action can be willed to be a universal law.”

– Key idea: reason demands consistency and

rejects contradiction

– Maxim – subjective principle of action .

– Moral duty vs. Happiness

The only way to choose morally is to act from duty,

following the categorical imperative. Therefore, actions
motivated by inclination (with the result of happiness) are
not moral actions.
  Carol Gilligan - Discovered that the moral concept
develop differently in young children.
 John Rawls - Agrued that “Justice is Fairness”,“Bias”
Standing behind “Viel of ignorance”,“Dishonesty or
Injustice”
 Thomas Hobbes - Agrued that there are two
fundamental fact about human being.
-We are all selfish

-We can only survive by banding together

 John Stuart Mill - Agrued that the good that

humanbeings seek is not so much pleasure as
happiness, and that the basic principle of
utilitarianism was what he called the “Greatest
happiness Principle”

 Jeremy Bentham - Adopted Epicarus basic principle

Response to platos question “What is good”

Human consider good because they are always

seeking it: Pleasure.

Categories of pleasures

 Natural and necessary, like sleeping and moderate

eating

 Natural but unnecessary, like drinking wine or playing

chess

 Unnatural and unnecessary, which hurt ones

body(example smoking cigarettes)
  Unnatural and necessary (but there are no such
pleasure)

Categorical imperative - it may be defined as a way of

evaluating motivations for action.

Example:

Suppose you decide to barrow money withot

intending to pay it back.

Suppose you are caught cheating and try to lieyour

way out of it.

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

 Represents ACM’s commitment in promoting the

highest professional and ethical standards.

 Consist of 24 imperatives formulated as statements of

personal responsibility, identifies the elements of
such a commitment.

 It is divided into 4 sections.

Section 1. General Moral Imperatives

 Contribute to society and human well-being.

  Avoid harm to others.

 Be honest and trustworthy.

 Be fair and take action not to discriminate.

 Honor property rights including copyrights and

patent.

 Give proper credit for intellectual property.

 Respect the privacy of others.

 Honor confidentiality.

Section 2. More specific Professional Responsibilities

 Strive to achieve the highest quality, effectiveness

and dignity in both the process and products of
professional work.

 Acquire and maintain professional competence.

 Know and respect existing laws pertaining to

professional work.

 Accept and provide appropriate professional review.

 Give comprehensive and thorough evaluations of

computer systems and their impact, including
analysis of possible risks.

 Honor contracts, agreements, and assigned

responsibilities.

 Improve public understanding of computing and its

consequences.

 Access computing and communication resources only

when authorized to do so.
Section 3. Organizational Leadership Imperatives

 Articulate social responsibilities of members of an

organizational unit and encourage full acceptance of
those responsibilities.

 Manage personnel and resources to design and build

information systems that enhance the quality of
working life.

 Acknowledge and support proper and authorized uses

of an organization’s computing and communication
resources.

 Ensure that users and those who will be affected by a

system have their needs clearly articulated during the
assessment and design of requirements; later the
system must be validated to meet requirements.

 Articulate and support policies that protect the

dignity of users and others affected by a computing
system.

 Create opportunities for members of the organization

to learn the principles and limitations of computer
systems.

Section 4. Compliance with The Code

 Uphold and promote the principles of this code.

 Treat violations of this code as inconsistent with

membership in the ACM.