what is the central question of ethics
what should I do
what does care based ethics emphasise
the importance of relationships between individuals
what is moral absolutism
people who think that there are universal rules that apply to everyone
what traits of moral relativists
they dispute the idea that there are some universal rules that all cultures ought to obey, they argue that: “when in rome, do as romans do”
- different cultures or different periods in history had different moral views
- what is ‘good’ depends on what a particular group of people approve
- relativism considers the diversity of human societies and responds to the different circumstances surrounding human acts
- those who adhere to moral relativism would say “when in rome, do as romans do”
what is virtue based ethics
practise that starts with the idea that we can identify what it would be like if we lived up to our own standards, and every decision we made moved us towards being the best version of ourselves
what type of ethics is one of the oldest approaches and derives from the work of ancient Chinese and greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle
virtue based ethics
4 key concepts of virtue based ethics
- flexible approach because no ‘universal’ rules to apply
- requires you to be true to yourself and learn from role models dead or alive
- a virtue is a moral characteristic that a person needs to live well - Aristotle called a “fullfilling life”
- the basis of virtue ethics decision making are simple questions such as “if I choose to do X, will that reflect me being the best person that I can be?”
what is meta cognition
thinking about thinking
what is consequentialialism
a way of working through the consequences of a decision.
- the idea that the right decision is the one that achieves the best outcomes (or benefit) with the least amount of harm (or cost)
what are the 3 main forms of consequentialism
- ethical egoism
- ethical altruism
- utilitarianism
what is Ethical Egoism
an action is morally right if the consequences of these actions are more favourable than unfavourable. What decision would be best for me?
What type of consequentialism does the phrase “ what decision would be best for everyone else?” represent
Ethical Altruism
- an action is morally right if the action are more favourable than unfavourable to everyone except the person doing the action
what is utilitarianism
an action is morally right if the consequences of that action are more favourable than unfavourable to everyone. It is about maximising human well-being.
what type of consequentialism does the phrase “ what decision would result in the greatest good from the maximum number of people?” represent
utilitarianism
what is one of the often-mentioned implications of consequentialist thinkin
“the end justifies the means”
what is deontology
an approach to ethics , sometimes called duty or Kantian ethics, it considers that the right thing to do is to your duty, regardless of whether you want
- anything you must will for yourself, you must be prepared to ‘will’ for everyone else. No exceptions. Ie you must ask “what if everyone did this” Ie using your phone while driving
- you cannot not use people as a means to an end - they deserve more respect than that.
are the two rules of what approach to ethics
Deontology
what are the 7 influences on decison making
- Intuition - “gut feel”
- fast and slow thinking -
- expediency - “we often make the easy decison rather than the best possible decision”
- do nothing - “simply convincing ourselves that no decision needs to be made”
- framing - “helps remove ‘the noise’ from an issue to allow us to see the problem for what it is”
- group conformity - ‘we recognise that there is a risk in being placed outside of our social group”
- not thinking - “ the temptation to simply do what has been done before”
what is the 5 step process for ethial dilemmas
- recognise
- facts
- discuss
- act
- review
what is a whistleblower
a person who reports information, usually gained from their employment, concerning illegal or unethical activities or misconduct within an organisation
in NZ what entity has an exisiting whistleblowing tool which allows users to submit info through an anonymous mailbox
the commerce commission of NZ
what is a moral agent
a ‘being’ who has the ability to discern right from wrong and make a considered judgement based on professional experience, seek further info or gain a second opinion
what are the 3 indicators of acting moral responsible
we are morally responsible if:
1. we are casually responsible for the effects or lack of effects of our actions or inactions
2. we intentionally brought about the effects or could have forseen them
3. the effects are morally important
according to Dr Cathy O’Neil two thing s are needed to build an algorthm what are thes?
- data (what happened in the past)
- definition of success (what are we looking for - this becomes embedded in the code)
