1. CSE/ISE 312 Ethics Do the Right Thing
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We have seen
new technology can create new risks and problems
social and legal institutions continually adapt
But technology is not immutable force –
Ppl decide what tech. to develop, to use, and when it is safe to release.
Ppl decide about access to the use of personal info.
Ppl make laws, set rules and standards.

2. Ethics Related Scenarios
Should you download movies or books from unauthorized Web sites?
Should you warn potential customers that your app copies their contact list?
What information of visitors to your website do you give to advertisers or other collectors?
Should you fire an employee who criticizes your business in social media?
Would you, a manager, monitor and record at work employees’ browsing? Will you inform them first?
What info will u collect from visitors to your site, how will u use and protect that info?
Is it right to make a significant change in your company’s privacy policy without advance notice?
We introduce several ethical theories.
We discuss several distinctions, e.g., between ethics and laws, important to understand when tackling ethical issues.
E.g., you install an employee monitoring system (legal) that records what employees say and do. Is it ethical?

3. What is Ethics Study of what it means to “do the right thing”
Ethical theory assumes that people are rational and make free choices
Ethical rules are rules to follow in our interactions and our actions that affect others
Most attempt to enhance human dignity, peace, happiness, and well-being
Neither of these two assumptions/conditions is always and absolutely true. Ppl act emotionally and they make mistakes.
Ppl is not making a free choice when s/he might lose a job.
Both are capacities and characteristics of human beings.
Behaving ethically: honest, keep our promises, do not steal, do our jobs, works and often is practical
Social institutions encourage us to do right – jail, lose job
Often corresponds to professional quality and competence.
However, sometimes it is difficult to do the right thing. It takes courage where we could suffer negative consequences.

4. Ethical Views (1) Deontological (nonconsequentialist) theories
View acts as good or bad based on the intrinsic aspect of the action. Emphasize duty, absolute rules (e.g., do not lie)
Three Immanuel Kant’s ideas about ethics:
Principle of universality: we should follow rules of behavior that we can universally apply to everyone
Logic and reason determines rules of ethical behavior. One should use reason, rationality, and judgment, not emotions, when making ethical decisions
Never treat people as merely means to ends, but rather as ends in themselves
There are many different theories to justify rules and decide what is ethical in specific cases.
Some theories view acts as good or bad because of their intrinsic aspect of the action
Some theories view acts as good or bad because of their consequences.
Deontological rules – follow from logic, emphasize duty and absolute rules, nonconsequential.

5. Ethical Views (2) Utilitarianism (a consequentialist theory)
Consider consequences, aim to increase happiness, or net aggregate utility;
Utility: what satisfies a person’s needs and values
Aggregate utility: consider all affected people
an act is right if it increases aggregate utility
Distinguish act utilitarianism and rule utilitarianism
Act: Consider utility of each act
Rule: Consider utility of general ethic rules instead, not individual act
Utility is what satisfies a person’s needs and values. Calculate the change in universal utility.
An act is right if it increases aggregate utility.
Act ~:
It might be difficult/impossible to determine all the consequences of an act.
Act utilitarianism does not respect individual rights. E.g., killing one for organs to save many others is considered ethical.
Homework problem: P30, problems of act utilitarianism

6. Ethical Views (3) Natural rights
Try let people make their own decisions, act freely according to their own judgment
Ethical behaviors respect fundamental/natural rights including rights to life, liberty, and property
Acts are likely ethical if they involve voluntary interactions and freely made exchanges, where the parties are not coerced or deceived
Emphasize the process by which people interact, not the result of the interaction
Natural rights example – we have a natural right to ourselves and our own labor, to life, liberty, property, etc..
Ethical rules are against killing, stealing, deception, and coercion.

7. Negative rights vs. Positive rights
Negative rights (liberties)
The rights to act without interference
Positive rights (claim-rights)
An obligation of some people to provide certain things for others, such as work, food, medical care, etc.
Negative rights and positive rights often conflict
Some think protecting claim rights is essential, some think protecting liberties is essential
Negative rights and positive rights often conflict.
Some think liberties are worthless by themselves, society must device social and legal mechanisms to ensure ppl have their claim rights, even if that diminishes the liberties of some. Protecting claim rights is essential.
Some think there can be no (or very few) positive rights, because it is impossible to enforce claim rights without violating the liberties of others. Protecting liberties is essential.
The disagreement on which is more important is not what we solve.

8. Negative rights vs. Positive rights
Negative rights (liberties)
Right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
Right to freedom of speech and religion
Right to work, own property, access the Internet
Positive rights (claim-rights)
To life: someone is obligated to pay for food/medical care
To freedom of speech
To a job: someone must hire you
To access Internet: subsidized access for poor people
Negative rights: Right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (Declaration of Independence)
Freedom of speech and religion (First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution): the government may not interfere with you, jail/kill you because of what you say, or what your religion beliefs are
The right to work, to access the Internet
Claim rights (positive rights):
To life: sb. are obligated to pay for food/medical care for those who can’t pay for them
To freedom of speech: owners of shopping malls, radio stations, online svcs may be required to provide space and time for content they do not wish to include
To a job: sb must hire u regardless of whether they choose to; it is right and obligatory for government to set up job programs for ppl out of job
To access Internet: taxes on our phone bills to provide subsidized access for poor people

9. Ethical Views (4) Golden rules
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
When making an ethical choice, consider from the perspective of the people the choice affects
We want people to recognize us as individuals and to respect our choices. Thus we should respect theirs
No simple answers
Ethical theories do not provide clear, incontrovertibly correct positions on most issues
But they help to identify things to consider, help to clarify reasoning and values
do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Ethical theories do not provide clear, incontrovertibly correct positions on most issues.

10. Important Distinctions (1)
Right, wrong and okay
It may be misleading to divide all acts into right and wrong
Better to use ethically obligatory/prohibited/acceptable
Difference between wrong and harm
Carelessly and needlessly causing harm is wrong
Harm alone is not sufficient to be unethical
Lack of harm is not sufficient to be ethical
P36 A # of important distinctions affect our ethical judgments, but are not often clearly expressed or understood. We identify them to help clarify issues in ethical debates.
- Harm alone is not sufficient to be unethical - eg1, you can produce a better product that consumers prefer, you reduce the income of your competitor. You are still ethical. Eg2, you got a job, knowing sb. else needed it more than you do. But nothing wrong with doing honest, productive work.
- Hacking is violation of property rights: a person has no right to enter your property without your permission, independent of any harm done.

11. Important Distinctions (2)
Separating goals from constraints
Goals is one thing, constraints on actions that are used to achieve goals is another thing
Business’ goal to maximize profits in not unethical, but how to achieve the goal has ethical constraints
Personal preference and ethics
Try to distinguish between acts we find distasteful, rude, or ill-advised and acts that we can argue convincingly are ethically wrong
- One should distinguish between actions we find distasteful, rude, or ill-advised and actions that we can argue convincingly are ethically wrong. E.g., you are offered a job to work for a pro-abortion or anti-abortion organization, you find the job distasteful, but the organization is not engaged in unethical activity, it’s exercising free speech. Also there is nothing ethically wrong with your declining the job. Org’s freedom of speech does not impose an ethical obligation on you to work for them.

12. Important Distinctions (3)
Law and Ethics
Some laws enforce ethical rules, some partly, some don’t (e.g., politicians pass laws to benefit themselves)
Are we ethically obligated to obey a law?
Is it always ethically right to do that which is legal? No!
New law lags behind new technology. Ethics fills the gap in between
- Some laws enforce ethical rules, some partly. Some don’t intend to implement ethical rules, due to convention, practicality, pressure from special interest groups
While it is not ethically obligatory to obey all laws, that is not an excuse to ignore laws, nor is a law (or lack of a law) an excuse to ignore ethics
Is it always ethically right to do sth. that is legal? No, e.g., do not lie.
New law lags behind new technology for good reasons. It takes time to recognize new problems, consider possible solutions, think and debate consequences and fairness. Ethics fills the gap between when tech creates new problems and when reasonable laws are passed