Week 6-7 Ethics Flashcards
What are some reasons for unethical practice?
Money (financial dependence)
Incompetency (unfamiliar tools/lack of expertise)
Loyalty
Diffusion of responsibility
In regards to the origin of ethics, describe religious ethics
Historic origin
Accepted in cultures
e.g ‘Gods will’ = ‘Morally correct’
In regards to the origin of ethics, describe natural order
Evolutional theory - hard to argue natural order
Examples in nature
Founded in 1900s
In regards to the origin of ethics, describe social contract
Founded in 1500s
Everyone has a desire to live in a functioning society
If you didn’t know what class you were going to be born into, what would you want to know you have?
- Basic human rights
- Distribution of resources
In regards to the origin of ethics, describe discourse ethics
Founded in 1980s
Communicative rationality (consensus process in ethical open discussions)
What are the four classical virtues involves in virtue ethics?
Justice
Wisdom
Courage
Moderation
What is involved in virtue ethics?
Founded by Aristotle (384 - 322 BC)
Act as someone everyone looks up to (virtuous)
4 Classical virtues
Difficult to apply to specific situations
What are the types of utilitarianism?
Classical utilitarianism
Preference utilitarianism
Welfare utilitarianism
Ideal utilitarianism
Act utilitarianism
Rule utilitarianism
What calculations can be performed with respect to utilitarianism?
Cost-benefit analysis
Risk analysis (e.g tolerable number of deaths)
What is classical utilitarianism?
An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation
Maximisation of happiness
Only considers the equality of humans
Depends on the outcome NOT the intent
Action/inaction is just as good/bad
What is preference utilitarianism?
Fulfilment of preferences (everyone is allowed to do what they want/desire)
ALL living organisms are equal (not just human)
Relevant questions/controversies asked (human vs animal, is eating meat ethical?)
What is welfare utilitarianism?
External perspective over internal
Access to food, accomodation, health care, education, etc
What is ideal utilitarianism?
All inclusive perspective
Happiness, preference, beauty, knowledge, friendship, virtue
What is act utilitarianism?
Every situation is evaluated (organ harvesting example)
What is rule utilitarianism?
A set of rules which maximise outcome are derived
What is Kant’s (1785) version of deontology?
Groundwork for the metaphysics of morals
Always act according to principles that you would be willing for everyone to follow
Moral duties are non-negotiable
Independent of the outcome (lying or killing hitler is still bad)
What is Ross’s (1946) version of deontology?
The right and the good
7 moral duties (prima facie duties)
- Duty to help
- Duty to keep promises
- Duty to not harm, etc etcW
What are the 2 types of duties considered in deontology?
Prima facie (first impression)
Actual duties (all things considered)
What is Williams’s (1973) version of deontology?
Ethical consistency
Residual duties are required for violated prima facie duties
What are the 3 parts of the comparative approach? Describe them
Autonomy - the right to self determination (make choices and accept personal risk e.g going skiing)
Benefit - positive and negative consequences (utilitarianism POV)
Justice - the distribution of benefit and burden (medical testing of population in Africa for use on population in US)
What is the process of the comparative approach?
Create a matrix with headings ‘Stakeholders’, ‘Autonomy’, ‘Benefit’, ‘Justice’.
Fill in column with all affected groups (stakeholders)
Determine the level of ethical profit, losses, or neutral for each stakeholder against each part of the CA.
Fill in the matrix with +’s, -‘s, and 0/neutrals.
What/who is our responsibility to as engineers?
- The client/customers
- The employer
- The environment
- Society/general public
What are the 8 Engineering New Zealand code of conduct rules we as engineers must follow?
- Take reasonable steps to safeguard health and safety
- Have regard to effects on the environment
- Report adverse consequences
- Act compentently
- Behave appropriately
- Inform others of consequences of not following advice
- Maintain confidentiality
- Report breach of code
What are the 6 levels of treatment of uncertainties in risk analysis?
- Identification of hazard
- Worst case
- Quasi-worst case (plausible upper bound)
- Best estimate central value
- Probability and risk analysis
- Display of risk uncertainties
What are the steps of an ERA?
Identify stakeholders
Identify roles of stakeholders (beneficiary, decision maker, risk-exposed)
What is paternalism in an ERA?
External decision maker
1. Beneficiary is the risk-exposed
2. Decision maker
What is maternalism in an ERA?
- Beneficiary
- Decision maker is the risk-exposed
What is externalities in an ERA?
- Beneficiary is the decision maker
- External party is risk exposed
What is individualism in an ERA?
- One party is all (beneficiary, decision maker, and the risk-exposed)
When considering the beneficiary and risk-exposed relationship, what happens when they are/are not the same stakeholder? Give examples.
If same stakeholder, unproblematic
If different, problematic (unjust distribution of risk)
Examples:
Self-interest - trimming hedge at own property
Deserve - prisoners working without pay
Compensation - risk-based pay for dangerous work
Reciprocally - driving in traffic with other people
When considering the decision maker and risk-exposed relationship, what happens when they are/are not the same stakeholder?
If same stakeholder, can be uncomplicated. However, it is necessary to determine whether the decision maker has all necessary information (e.g tobacco sales).
If different, it is always problematic
When considering the beneficiary and decision maker relationship, what happens when they are/are not the same stakeholder?
If same stakeholder, often problematic if they are not also risk-exposed (trust is often an issue).
Commonly mitigated by:
- decision maker pays for the risk (taxes, credits, damages)
- decision maker controlled by other decision makers (EPA, H+S reps)
What does the ERA Venn diagram look like?
Look at lecture slides (second ethics lecture) - sorry I can’t add a pic
What is the process of an ETA?
. Limit analysis
/ \
Possibilities Demand
\ /
Consequences
|
Evaluate
What are the 6 steps of an ETA?
- Identify stakeholder perspectives
- Seek factual information (also what is missing?)
- Compare to similar situations
- Explore with ethical theories
- Construct new solutions
- Explore pratical implementation
What is an ETA?
Ethical Technological Assessment
What is an ERA?
Ethical Risk Assessment
