This document discusses different types of ethics including personal ethics, social ethics, religious ethics, business ethics, and professional ethics. It provides examples and definitions for each type. Personal ethics refers to one's own moral guide while social ethics governs how members of a society deal with issues like fairness and justice. Religious ethics is often derived from religious teachings. Business ethics examines right and wrong in business contexts. Professional ethics establishes codes of conduct for computing professionals.
2. Topics To Be Discussed
•Personal Ethics
•Social Ethics
•Religious Ethics
•Professional Ethics
•Business Ethics
3. Personal Ethics
• Personal ethics is any system that has been chosen in
some way as a moral guide in the particular life style.
4. Social Ethics
• Standards that govern how members of a society are to deal
with each other on issues such as fairness, justice, poverty
and the rights of the individual.
OR
• The rightness of an action is based on the customs and
norms of a particular society or community (e.g., the usual
way things are done around here)
5. Religious Ethics:
• Most religions have an ethical component, often
derived from purported supernatural revelation or
guidance.
• According to Simon Blackburn, "For many people,
ethics is not only tied up with religion, but is
completely settled by it. Such people do not need to
think too much about ethics, because there is an
authoritative code of instructions, a handbook of how
to live.“
6. Religious Ethics:
• Ethics, which is a major branch of philosophy, encompasses
right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than
the common conception of analyzing right and wrong. A
central aspect of ethics is "the good life", the life worth
living or life that is simply satisfying, which is held by many
philosophers to be more important than traditional moral
conduct.
• Some assert that religion is necessary to live ethically.
Blackburn states that, there are those who "would say that
we can only flourish under the umbrella of a strong social
order, cemented by common adherence to a particular
religious tradition”.
7. Business Ethics
• Business ethics is the study of good and evil, right and wrong, and just
and unjust actions in business.
• Although all managers face difficult ethical conflicts, applying clear
guidelines resolves the vast majority of them.
• Ethical traditions that apply to business support truth telling, honesty,
protection of life, respect for rights, fairness, and obedience to law.
• Eliminating unethical behavior may be difficult, but knowing the
rightness or wrongness of actions is usually easy.
8. SEVEN ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS OF A
PERSONAL CODE OF COMPUTER
ETHICS
• 1. Honesty
• 2. Respect
• 3. Confidentiality (safeguard entrusted
information)
• 4. Professionalism
• 5. Responsibility
• 6. Communication
• 7. Obeying the law
9. Why People Act Unethically
• The person’s ethical standards are different from those of society as a whole:
• The person chooses to act selfishly.
• In many instances, both reasons exist.
10. An Example
A woman was traveling through a developing country when she
witnessed a car in front of her run off the road and roll over several
times. She asked the hired driver to pull over to assist, but, to her
surprise, the driver accelerated nervously past the scene. A few
miles down the road the driver explained that in his country if
someone assists an accident victim, then the police often hold the
assisting person responsible for the accident itself. If the victim
dies, then the assisting person could be held responsible for the
death. The driver continued explaining that road accident victims
are therefore usually left unattended and often die from exposure to
the country's harsh desert conditions.
What should she do? What is the most ethical decision?
21. Sources and Other Information
• Bynum, Terrell, "Computer Ethics: Basic Concepts
and Historical Overview", The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2001 Edition),
Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2001/ent
ries/ethics-computer>
• Ethics in Computing: http://ethics.csc.ncsu.edu/
• Computer Ethics Institute
http://www.brook.edu/its/cei/cei_hp.htm
Kaizen 2006 - 2007
22. Sources and Other Information
(cont’d)
• Netiquette:
• The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette –
Index
http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/
• Netiquette Home Page
http://www.albion.com/netiquette/
• Online Netiquette Home Page
http://www.onlinenetiquette.com/
Kaizen 2006 - 2007