Research Thinking and Writing Toolbox DVA403 ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM

1. Research Thinking and Writing Toolbox DVA403 ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM Gordana Dodig Crnkovic School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Sweden http://www.idt.mdh.se/personal/gdc/ April 2009

2. Professional Ethics Course Information about the course: http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590 http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ethics/ [Website provides even extensive ethics resources.]

3. Where do we find Ethics?

4. 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)

5. 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

6. Ethical Questions 3 • Privacy/ Personal Integrity/ Databases/ Datamining/ Surveillannce • Decoding mental states from brain activity(John-Dylan Haynes http://www.cbs.mpg.de/staff/haynes-10438http://videolectures.net/john_dylan_haynes/Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience) • Medical Implants, Enhancements, Upgrades, Cloning

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

8. Computing Curricula

9. 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. However, the education in Professional Ethics, that is a compulsory part of ACM/IEEE Computing Curriculum is often absent. General Knowledge within Computing

10. 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

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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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 formalstudy of those standards and conduct. For this reason, the study of ethics is also often called "moral philosophy."

15. 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.

16. 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: www.ethicsquality.com/philosophy.html

17. ETHICS LAW MORAL SOCIETY, VALUES AND NORMS

18. 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.

19. 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 http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/e/ethics.htm

20. Ethical Issues in Engineering

21. 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, 1996

22. 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.

23. Industry(Other firms) Profession(Societies) ClientsConsumers Engineer Colleagues Family (Private Sphere) Managers • Ethics Contexts Engineering firm Global environment Society/Nature 23

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. Why is Professional Ethics important? • Professional Ethicsas a part of education for every socially important profession • An important component of the professionalism!

30. http://legacy.eos.ncsu.edu/eos/info/computer_ethics/Ethics in Computing "site map"

31. References Basic material: http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/cd5590 http://www.idt.mdh.se/kurser/ethics/ 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://www.prs.heacademy.ac.uk/projects/ethics/ http://ethics.acusd.edu/relativism.html 31