Lecture 1: Introduction to Philosophy, Logic, Ethics, and More

1. Lecture 1: Introduction to Philosophy, Logic, Ethics, and More

2. Philosophy • “Philosophy, need not as commonly believed, put our heads in the clouds, out of touch with everyday reality. Quite to the contrary, philosophy takes our heads out of the clouds, enlarging our views of ourselves and our knowledge of the world, allowing us to break out of prejudices and harmful habits that we have held since we were too young or too naïve to know better. Philosophy puts our lives and our beliefs in perspective, by enabling us to see afresh the ways in which we view the world, to see what we assume, what we infer, and what we know for certain. It allows us to appreciate other views of the world. It encourages us to see the consequences of our views and sometimes their hopeless inconsistencies.”

3. What is Ethics? Ethics comes from the Latin term “ethos” which means customs, habitual conduct, usages and character. Ethics is related to morals, moral systems, and to human conduct. As a branch of philosophy, it systematically examines and studies such concepts as “right” and “wrong.” Ethics deals with what we should and should not do, what acts are “good” and “wrong.” It examines such concepts and constructs as responsibility and rights. As the basis for ethics, morality is a set or system of rules, principles, or values (cultural, professional, religious, et cetera) that prescribe behavior and how we evaluate those behaviors

4. Ethics Presupposes: • That people are: • Free • They want to do what is right • And they can make conscious, thoughtful and reflective decisions • Types of Ethical thinking: • Descriptive—reports the “facts” “doesn’t get us too far in resolving ethical dilemmas. • Normative—concerned with questions of good/bad, right and wrong; allows us to make moral judgments • Prescriptive: We make assertions based on consideration of morality; concerned with what OUGHT to be the case; such assertions must not be random, it must involve a system of rules and values; prescriptive statements are generalizable

5. Major Ethical Frameworks • Deontological (Kant); Do unto others…; never treat others as means to an end • Utilitarian (Mill): The greatest good for the greatest number • Virtue Ethics (Aristotle): Emphasizes the moral character • What are virtues? Living well, being a good person, being happy, complete, and fulfilled. Focus on what kind of person one should be. • Feminist Ethics • Buddhist Ethics • Others

6. Ethical Theories • Consequentialist-based (Mill) • Utilitarian • Act-utilitarian • Rule-utilitarian • Consequentialist-based (Kant) • Rule deontology • Act deontology ACT (Focus on primacy of Individual actions) versus RULE (Focus on the primacy of general rules)

7. Ethical Theories (2) • Rights-based • Natural rights (Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness) • Legal rights • Positive versus negative rights: “Rights considered negative rights may include civil and political rights such as freedom of speech, private property, freedom from violent crime, freedom of worship, habeas corpus, a fair trial, freedom from slavery and the right to bear arms. Rights considered positive rights may include other civil and political rights such as police protection of person and property and the right to counsel, as well as economic, social and cultural rights such as public education, health care, social security, and a minimum standard of living. In the "three generations" account of human rights, negative rights are often associated with the first generation of rights, while positive rights are associated with the second and third generations.” • Character Based (AKA, virtue ethics): don’t ask what can I DO but what kind of person can I BE?

8. Table 2-3  Four Types of Ethical Theory (H. Tavani)

9. What is unique about computer data/information? • Moor: “greased” and “malleable,” resulting in “policy vacuums and “conceptual muddles” • Does the emergence of digital media significantly alter how we are to think about our ethical responsibilities towards one another? How or why not? • Is technology neutral? • Who is responsible for the impacts and consequences of the global diffusion of ICTs? • Designers, users, who? • Distributed responsibility?

10. Computer/Information Ethics • “Computer and information ethics”, in the broadest sense of this phrase, can be understood as that branch of applied ethics which studies and analyzes such social and ethical impacts of ICT. • CE as a “field” dates to the 1940s with the work of Norbert Wiener, followed by Maner, Moor, Johnson, • IE, more recently coined in the 1980s by Rafael Capurro in German and Robert Hauptman in St Cloud

11. Morals/Ethics • Customs, habits, behavior • Ethics is the study of morality • So-we are studying the customs, habits of ICT and all that it entails.

12. Conduct • Directives--microlevel • Social policies—macrolevel • Professional—codes

13. Moral Systems (eg, Gert) • Fundamental purpose is to prevent or alleviate harm or suffering • Public • Informal • Rationality (all moral agents—so, who does this exclude? Are robots rationale, for example?)

14. Gert’s Ten Moral Rules Versus the Ten Commandments? • Do not kill • Do not cause pain • Do not disable • Do not deprive of freedom • Do not deprive of pleasure • Do not deceive • Keep your promises • Do not cheat • Obey the law • Do your duty. • ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.' TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.' THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.' FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.' FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.' SIX: 'You shall not murder.' SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.' EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.' NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.' TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.'

15. Values • The foundation from which a society’s morals are based • Intrinsic versus instrumental or extrinsic values • “It is the ethical or philosophic value that an object has "in itself" or "for its own sake", as an intrinsic property. An object with intrinsic value may be regarded as an end or (in Kantian terminology) end-in-itself.[1] • It is contrasted with instrumental value (or extrinsic value), the value of which depends on how much it generates intrinsic value.” What are examples of each? • Jim Moor: Core Values (life, happiness, autonomy) • But—core values are not necessarily moral values

16. How do we develop moral systems? • Religion • Legality • Philosophy/Ethics • Discussion Stoppers: • People disagree about morality • Judging and imposing • Morality is private • Relativism • Others? (any body stop a discussion this weekend?)

17. James Moor • In one sense I am arguing for the special status of computer ethics as a field of study. Applied ethics is not simply ethics applied. But, I also wish to stress the underlying importance of general ethics and science to computer ethics. Ethical theory provides categories and procedures for determining what is ethically relevant. For example, what kinds of things are good? What are our basic rights? What is an impartial point of view? These considerations are essential in comparing and justifying policies for ethical conduct. Similarly, scientific information is crucial in ethical evaluations. It is amazing how many times ethical disputes turn not on disagreements about values but on disagreements about facts. • On my view, computer ethics is a dynamic and complex field of study which considers the relationships among facts, conceptualizations, policies and values with regard to constantly changing computer technology. Computer ethics is not a fixed set of rules which one shellacs and hangs on the wall. Nor is computer ethics the rote application of ethical principles to a value-free technology. Computer ethics requires us to think anew about the nature of computer technology and our values. Although computer ethics is a field between science and ethics and depends on them, it is also a discipline in its own right which provides both conceptualizations for understanding and policies for using computer technology.

18. Cyberethics and Logic • An argument has at least two characteristics– includes at least two claims and aims to establish a conclusion • What do we look for in an argument? How do we construct arguments? • Clear, well defined terms, how reasoned your approach is; • Understand valid versus invalid arguments: “If an argument is valid, and its premises are true, the conclusion must be true: a valid argument cannot have true premises and a false conclusion. • The validity of an argument depends, however, not on the actual truth or falsity of its premises and conclusions, but solely on whether or not the argument has a valid logical form. The validity of an argument is not a guarantee of the truth of its conclusion. A valid argument may have false premises and a false conclusion.”

19. Types of Fallacies • Faulty reasoning • Informal logical fallacies • Ad hominem attacks (attacks against the person—used in politics and academia) • Slippery slope arguments (The only type of argumentation typically taught in LIS) • Appeal to authority (Thanks to Jane’s Addiction, “Idiots Rule”) • False Cause (post hoc ergo propter hoc—after this, or therefore because of this) • Begging the question • Fallacy of composition/division (every democrat is pro-gay marriage) • Ambiquity • Appeal to the people (“How can so many people be so dumb?”) • Many/Any • Virtuality (Moor; online porn as an example?)

20. Other ways to think about this • Ess: When faced with dilemmas, then, a first question is to ask, "Does the dilemma in fact cover all the possibilities - or is it missing a third (or still more) possibility?” • Floridi (My philosophical crush): defines philosophy of information (PI) and information ethics (IE) against the larger backdrop of Information and Computer Ethics (ICE). Among their many strengths, PI and IE offer promising metaphysical and ethical frameworks for a global ICE that holds together globally shared norms with the irreducible differences that define local cultural and ethical traditions.

21. Arguing about Ethics and IT • Should the university have the right to monitor your email? • Is online gaming a social ill? • Should google have the right to censor in China? • What questions/debates do you want to ask?

22. Why Do We Need Ethical Theories? • Ethical theories can guide us in our analysis of moral issues involving cyber-technology. • Is there a simpler, alternative scheme that we could use in our moral deliberations? • Why not simply follow the "golden rule" or follow one's own conscience?

23. Following the Golden Rule • No one one would ever object to the spirit the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." • This rule assumes that whatever I am willing to accept that you do unto me, you would also be willing to accept that I do unto you. • Suppose that if I were a programmer I would be willing to give away my software programs for free. Does it follow that I should expect others to do the same for me?

24. The Structure of Ethical Theories • An essential feature of theory in general is that it guides us in our investigations. • In science, theory provides us with some general principles and structures to analyze our data. • The purpose of ethical theory, like scientific theory, is to provide us with a framework for analyzing moral issues. • Ideally, a good theory should be coherent, consistent, comprehensive, and systematic.

25. What is a Profession? "Professionals are experts who employ their authority as experts in an unending meditation between individual private interests and collective public interests" (Latham) A Professional is considered an expert, capable of making informed decisions

26. What is Unique? What Sets Apart a Professional? Distinction between a practitioner and a professional—part of that distinction comes from ethics. There is a distinction between the personal and the professional that must be reconciled. “Professionalism includes a commitment to benefiting others beyond what ordinary morality requires” (Davis)

27. Ethics? Law? Policy? Ethics is distinct from law, religion, policy, in that those provide a structured context to which we look for ‘reasonable’ decisions; the law does not necessarily tell us what is inherently good or bad. It prescribes behavior not for the purpose of morality but for the purpose of satisfying a societal requirement or rule. Rules are dictated by authority, not necessarily morality.

28. Ethical Decision Making Define the situation, recognize your bias, feelings, responsibilities Identify stakeholders Look to extant codes of ethics/organizational/institutional policies Ensure your competence in evaluating/responding to the situation (do you need an outside expert to advise? An internal colleague?)

29. Ethical Decision Making (2) Consider the boundaries of your actions or inactions Evaluate alternatives to your decisions Evaluate who will be affected by your decisions? Will you be confident in disclosing your decision? Will your public statement/decision match your organizational mission/personality? Consider the cumulative result of this decision, as it will affect subsequent decisions. Think precedent.

30. Codes of Ethics • Professional Codes of Ethics embody the morality and spirit of a profession. • Some controversy regarding the utility and power of a Code • Are they enforceable? Are they practical? Are they substantive? • Generally define relationships to other stakeholders: • Who would you identify in your professional code?

31. Big Question Guiding Ess (and us): • Does the emergence of digital media significantly alter how we are to think about our ethical responsibilities towards one another? How or why not?

32. Ethical Frameworks for Cross-Cultural Communication Online? • Become familiar with other cultures • “The Otherness of the Other” • Culture Shock (ontological shock) • the idea that our norms, beliefs, and ways of life are not universal • Ess advocates an “epistemological humility” (We can’t assume that our ways work for everyone)