Hence, we need to move beyond the traditionalist account. Why is the social context in which computer and information technology is used so important to computer ethics?My Answer: All of the places (business, home, commercial justice system, education institutes, medicine, science, government, so on) have an influence on how a new technology is understood and how policy vacuums are filled. Social context shapes the very character and direction of technological development.One of the reasons the study of ethical issues surrounding computer and information technology is so fascination is that in order to understand these issues, one has to understand the environments in which it is being used.
Computer Ethics 3rd Edition By Deborah G Johnson Pdf Free
DescriptionIn today's world, computers can have complex and contradictory effects on human life. They can enhance our quality of life by creating access to previously unimagined worlds. On the other hand, as computers become increasingly important in our everyday lives, their potential to strip away our privacy and autonomy increases exponentially. Computers, Ethics, and Society, now in its third edition, offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary set of readings on the ethical and social implications of computer technology. Taking into account technological, social, and philosophical issues, the contributors consider topics such as the work-related ramifications of automation, the ethical obligations of computer specialists, and the threats to privacy that come with increasedcomputerization. Thoroughly up-to-date in its coverage, this collection includes articles on specific ethical dilemmas related to contemporary issues and events. Essays new to the third edition cover such topics as cyber-terrorism, the ethics of downloading music from Internet sites, and the question of whether human beings may someday be 'replaced' by artificial intelligence and computer technology.
In this paper i will argue that computer systems are moral entities but not, alone, moral agents. In making this argument I will navigate through a complex set of issues much debated by scholars of artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and computer ethics. My claim is that those who argue for the moral agency (or potential moral agency) of computers are right in recognizing the moral importance of computers, but they go wrong in viewing computer systems as independent, autonomous moral agents. Computer systems have meaning and significance only in relation to human beings; they are components in socio-technical systems. What computer systems are and what they do is intertwined with the social practices and systems of meaning of human beings. Those who argue for the moral agency (or potential moral agency) of computer systems also go wrong insofar as they overemphasize the distinctiveness of computers. Computer systems are distinctive, but they are a distinctive form of technology and have a good deal in common with other types of technology.
In this paper, we focus attention on the role of computer system complexity in ascribing responsibility. We begin by introducing the notion of technological moral action (TMA). TMA is carried out by the combination of a computer system user, a system designer (developers, programmers, and testers), and a computer system (hardware and software). We discuss three sometimes overlapping types of responsibility: causal responsibility, moral responsibility, and role responsibility. Our analysis is informed by the well-known accounts provided by Hart and Hart and Honoré. While these accounts are helpful, they have misled philosophers and others by presupposing that responsibility can be ascribed in all cases of action simply by paying attention to the free and intended actions of human beings. Such accounts neglect the part played by technology in ascriptions of responsibility in cases of moral action with technology. For both moral and role responsibility, we argue that ascriptions of both causal and role responsibility depend on seeing action as complex in the sense described by TMA. We conclude by showing how our analysis enriches moral discourse about responsibility for TMA.
The study of the ethical issues related to computer use developed primarily in the 1980s, although a number of important papers were published in previous decades, many of which are contained in this volume. Computer ethics, as the field became known, flourished in the following decades. The emphasis initially was more on the computing profession: on questions related to the development of systems, the behaviour of computing professionals and so on. Later the focus moved to the Internet and to users of computer and related communication technologies. This book reflects these different emphases and has articles on most of the important issues, organised into sections on the history and nature of computer ethics, cyberspace, values and technology, responsibility and professionalism, privacy and surveillance, what computers should not do and morality and machines.
Contents: Series Preface; Introduction; Part I Computer Ethics - Its History and Nature: Ethical challenges to citizens of 'the automatic age': Norbert Wiener on the information society, Terrell Ward Bynum; Some Moral and technical consequences of automation, Norbert Wiener; Rules of ethics in information processing, Donn B Parker; The 2 cultures of the computer age, Joseph Weizenbaum; On the impact of the computer on society: how does one insult a machine?, Joseph Weizenbaum; What is computer ethics?, James H. Moor; 4 ethical issues of the information age, Richard O. Mason; Is there an ethics of computing?, Geoffrey Brown; The use and abuse of computer ethics, Donald Gotterbarn; Information ethics: on the philosophical foundations of computer ethics, Luciano Floridi. Part II Cyberspace: Balancing intellectual property rights and the intellectual commons: a Lockean analysis, Herman T. Tavani; What is so bad about internet content regulation?, John Weckert; Unreal friends, Dean Cocking and Steve Matthews; Developing trust on the internet, Victoria McGreer; The computer revolution and the problem of global ethics, Krystyna Gorniak-Kocikowska; Computer-mediated colonization, the renaissance, and educational imperatives for an intercultural global village, Charles Ess; Shaping the web: why the politics of search engines matters, Lucas D. Introna and Helen Nissenbaum; Part III Values and Technology: Do artefacts have politics?, Langdon Winner; Towards ethical principles for designing politico-administrative information systems, M.J. van den Hoven; Bias in computer systems, Batya Friedman and Helen Nissenbaum; Method in computer ethics: towards a multi-level interdisciplinary approach, Philip Brey. Part IV Responsibility and Professionalism: Human agency and responsible computing: implications for computer system design, Batya Friedman and Peter H. Kahn Jr ; Informatics and professional responsibility, David Gotterbarn; Do engineers have social responsibilities?, Deborah G. Johnson; Computing and accountability, Helen Nissenbaum; Using the new ACM code of ethics in decision making, Ronald E. Anderson, Deborah G. Johnson, Donald Gotterbarn and Judith Perolle. Part V Privacy and Surveillance: Are computer hacker break-ins ethical?, Eugene H. Spafford; A moral approach to electronic patient records, N.B. Fairweather and S. Rogerson; Privacy and the varieties of informational wrongdoing, Jeroen van den Hoven; Protecting privacy in an information age: the problem of privacy in public, Helen Nissenbaum; Privacy, the workplace and the internet, Seumas Miller and John Weckert; Surveillance in employment: the case of teleworking, N. Ben Fairweather. Part VI What Computers Should Not Do: Are there decisions computers should never make? James H. Moore; Computers in control: rational transfer of authority or irresponsible abdication of autonomy? Arthur Kuflik; On becoming redundant or what computers shouldn't do, James Lenman. Part VII Morality and Machines: Men, machines, materialism, and morality, Peter T. Manicas; Can robots be moral?, Laszlo Versenyi ; A code of conduct for robots coexisting with human beings, Shigeo Hirose; Information, ethics, and computers: the problem of autonomous moral agents, Bernd Carsten Stahl; Name Index.
This poses a serious ethical dilemma. Since the students are not causing any harm to the system, is such an action morally reprehensible or acceptable? Many computer professionals feel that this act is not ethically sanctioned and the computer science professors must address the issue of computer ethics more fervently in their classes.
Written in clear, accessible prose, the Fourth edition of Computer Ethics brings together philosophy, law, and technology. The text provides an in-depth exploration and analysis of a broad range of topics regarding the ethical implications of widespread use of computer technology. The approach is normative while also exposing the student to alternative ethical stances.
The 4th edition brings the field of computer ethics into the 21st Century. Drawing on concepts and theories from STS, this edition introduces a new approach: sociotechnical computer ethics. The book maintains a focus on enduring issues of privacy, property, democracy, and professional ethics while coming to grips with current developments in computing, information, communication technologies, and ethical issues around social networking, free and open source software, Wikipedia, artificial agents, and more. 2ff7e9595c
Comments