Professional Ethics. Introduction

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1 Professional Ethics CDT409 Introduction Gordana Dodig Crnkovic School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Sweden 1

2 Course Preliminaries 2

3 Information about the course Information about the course: Books? See the web page literature.html Website provides extensive ethics resources. 3

4 Presentations Presentation of participants Course language is English, for all communication Communication means: webpage, mail Class Photos will be made during the course 4

5 Examination Taking class notes and discussing the selected topics in the class. How to take class notes? Provide a summary of the main points of the lecture's topics as well as your own reflections on these topics. Writing an article on a topic within Professional Ethics 5

6 Course Goals and the Measure of Success The course will develop a framework on which professional and ethical issues can be analyzed, and build up awareness of various views of ethical issues as well as ethical rights and responsibilities of professionals. The measure of success is how much new we learn and if we can notice any change in the attitudes (sensitivity) to the problems of professional ethics. 6

7 Planning for the Course Examination Grading: 7,5 credits Class presentation assignment (1credits) - Preparing and leading of an in-class activity Class notes (4 credits) Research paper (2.5 credits ) Choose research paper topic as soon as possible! See even suggested topics in the course archives Papers are written individually Topics should be specific for everyone 7

8 Taking Lecture and Class Notes At the end of the course you are expected to send me a Word file with the complete class notes for the course, one A4 page for each class meeting. 8

9 Planning for the Course Examples of possible in-class discussions Discussion PROFESSIONAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES Codes of Ethics. Whistle Blowing In-class activity: CASE STUDIES Discussion ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS In-class activity: CASE STUDIES Discussion PRIVACY AND CIVIL LIBERTIES In-class activity: CASE STUDIES 9

10 Planning for the Course Choose which in-class activity you would like to lead Discussion COMPUTER GAMES AND ENTERTAINMENT In-class activity: CASE STUDIES Discussion THE ETHICS OF SAFETY CRITICAL SYSTEMS In-class activity: CASE STUDIES 10

11 Where do we find Ethics? 11

12 Ethical Questions 1 Environmental Ethics issues (global warming, pollution, resources) Medical Ethics (resource distribution, transplants) Genetic Ethics (gene manipulation) Global Justice (consequence of global communications) Open Source & Open Access File sharing (Pirate Party in Sweden) 12

13 Ethical Questions 2 Ambient Intelligence/ Ubiquitous computing/ Networked things Nano-technology Autonomous, intelligent, adaptive, learning systems Robotics, industrial/social Social networking via web (Second Life, Facebook) Virtual worlds/ virtual economy 13

14 Ethical Questions 3 Privacy/ Personal Integrity/ Databases/ Datamining/ Surveillannce Decoding mental states from brain activity (John-Dylan Haynes All in the Mind - The Fascinating Future of Brain Research) Medical Implants, Enhancements, Upgrades, Cloning 14

15 Ethical Questions 4 Safety critical systems Research ethics (publication, living research objects, informed consent) 15

16 Computing Curricula 16

17 General Knowledge within Swedish Computer Science and Engineering education follows in many respects an international model, the American ACM/IEEE Computing Curricula Typical general knowledge subjects that are widely represented are Theory of Science and Research Methodology. Computing However, the education in Professional Ethics, that is a compulsory part of ACM/IEEE Computing Curriculum is often absent. 17

18 Computing Curricula, ACM/IEEE Social context of computing Methods and tools of analysis of ethical argument Professional and ethical responsibilities Risks and liabilities of safety-critical systems Intellectual property Privacy and civil liberties Social implications of the Internet Computer crime Philosophical foundations of ethics 18

19 Identifying Ethical Issues Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D. Director, The Values Institute University of San Diego 19

20 What Is Ethics? There are few things wholly evil or wholly good. Almost everything...is an inseparable compound of the two, so that our best judgment of the preponderance between them is continually demanded. Abraham Lincoln 20

21 Ethics and Morality - Etymology Morality and ethics have same roots, mores which means manner and customs from the Latin and etos which means custom and habits from the Greek. Robert Louden, Morality and Moral Theory 21

22 Ethics and Morality Strictly speaking, morality is used to refer to what we would call moral standards and moral conduct while ethics is used to refer to the formal study of those standards and conduct. For this reason, the study of ethics is also often called "moral philosophy." 22

23 Ethics and Morality Morality: first-order set of beliefs and practices about how to live a good life. Ethics: a second-order, conscious reflection on the adequacy of our moral beliefs. 23

24 Ethics Descriptive ethics is the factual study of the ethical standards or principles of a group or tradition; Normative ethics is the development of theories that systematically denominate right and wrong actions; Applied ethics is the use of these theories to form judgments regarding practical cases; and Meta-ethics is the analysis of the meaning and justification of ethical claims Source: 24

25 Society, Values and Norms ETHICS MORAL LAW 25

26 Identifying Moral Issues Moral concerns are unavoidable in life. They are not always easy to identify and define. Moral issues within profession must be addressed specifically within professional university education and professional organizations. 26

27 Ethics as an Ongoing Conversation Professional discussions of ethical issues in journals. We come back to some fundamental ideas again and again, finding new meaning in them. See 27

28 Ethical Issues in Engineering 28

29 Engineering as Social Experimentation All products of technology present some potential dangers, and thus engineering is an inherently risky activity. In order to underscore this fact and help in exploring its ethical implications, we suggest that engineering should be viewed as an experimental process. It is not, of course, an experiment conducted solely in a laboratory under controlled conditions. Rather, it is an experiment on a social scale involving human subjects. Ethics in Engineering, Martin, M.W., Schinzinger, McGraw-Hill,

30 Ethics Contexts Ethical problems arise most often when there are differences of judgment or expectations about what constitutes the true state of affairs or a appropriate course of action. 30

31 Ethics Contexts Clients Consumers Industry (Other firms) Profession (Societies) Engineering firm Family (Private Sphere) Engineer Colleague s Manager s Global environment Society/Nature 31

32 A Framework for Ethical Decision Making The ethical decision making includes the following steps: recognize a moral issue get the facts evaluate the alternative actions from various moral perspectives make a decision act reflect on the results of the decision afterwards. 32

33 A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory The Virtue Approach Focuses on attitudes, dispositions, or character traits that enable us to act in ways that develop our human potentials. Examples: honesty, courage, faithfulness, trustworthiness, integrity, etc. The principle is: What is ethical is what develops moral virtues in ourselves and our communities. 33

34 A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory The Utilitarian Approach Focuses on the consequences that actions or policies have on the well-being ( utility ) of all persons directly or indirectly affected by the action or policy. The principle is: Of any two actions, the most ethical one will produce the greatest balance of benefits over harms. 34

35 A Pluralistic Approach to Moral Theory The Rights Approach Each person has a fundamental right to be respected and treated as a free and equal rational person capable of making his or her own decisions. The principle is: An action or policy is morally right only if those persons affected by the decision are not used merely as instruments for advancing some goal, but are fully informed and treated only with their informed consent. 35

36 Why Study Professional Ethics? A professional ethics course is a means to increase the ability of future engineers, managers to first recognize and then responsibly confront moral issues raised by technological activity. The most important goal is to develop the ethical autonomy, i.e. the skill and the habit of thinking rationally and critically about the ethical issues. 36

37 Why is Professional Ethics important? Professional Ethics as a part of education for every socially important profession An important component of the professionalism! 37

38 An Example of Current Research The International Journal of Internet Research Ethics (IJIRE) seeks papers from researchers describing best ethical practices in the investigation of online communities. This special issue, edited by Aleks Krotoski, aims to create a compendium of case studies and theoretical frameworks which future scholars will reference when designing their own analyses of populations and practices in social networking sites, weblogs, listservs, online games, video sharing sites, virtual worlds and other Web environments that demonstrate evidence of community processes. Topics of particular interest include: - Vulnerable populations (e.g., youth, medical contexts, extremism) - Outcomes of challenges to the online community due to research ethics decisions - Research design (e.g., how to factor in experimentation that involves research deception) - Methodological practices (e.g., data scraping, behavioural tracking, successful methodological combinations) - Working with commercial companies - Negotiating the online-offline identity (both research participants/subjects and investigator) - Implications of the community content/framework - Ecological validity: extrapolating the findings to other communities and non-internet conclusions - International ethics considerations 38

39 An Example of Current Research These are not exclusive topics, and other areas that outline best practices in the ethical analysis of online communities are welcomed. The special issue seeks to include submissions that introduce extensions to existing theories - including new frameworks for approaching the ethical issues that emerge in online communities and novel applications of existing offline ethics frameworks - and examples of best practice - including case studies of successful ethical solutions, both qualitative and quantitative research approaches, issues associated with international ethics practices, and changes to ethical approaches over the short- and the long-term. While all forms of scholarship and research are welcome, the special issue will feature theoretically and empirically grounded study in the social or behavioural sciences. Submission guidelines: (etc.) 39

40 Ethics in Computing "site map" 40

41 References Basic material: Moral Philosophy Through The Ages, James Fieser, Mayfield Publishing Company,

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