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Computing and Society 29/6/2015

Society
= Association of people organized under a system of rules
= Rules: advance the good of members over time
= Govern the member of the society (to join, must adhere to certain part of rules of society
known as morality)
Morality
= A society rules of conduct
= What people ought / ought not to do in various situations
= Can be written or unwritten
= Rule which determine right or wrong if you are a part of the society
= Multiple society multiple rules and morality
Ethics
= Rational examination of morality
= Evaluation of peoples behavior
= Official evaluation of morality based on reasoning. (Ethics process)
= Either judge the person, or the act itself.
E.g.: Couple live together, not married with 3 kids but relationship complicated (Morally correct
according to the society there)
We come, and look at the moral system and compare it to best practices which is an accepted
way of living by the world.
1) Look at guidance set by United Nations on relationship
2) Look at heredity. (to have child must be legal and license married)
Why study Ethics?
= Ethics: a way to decide the best thing to do
= New problems accompany new technologies
= Common wisdom may not exist for novel situations brought about by new technologies
More on Ethics
= Rational, systematical analysis
Doing ethics : answers need explanations
Explanations : facts, shared values, logic
= Ethics: voluntary (action taken by that person is not involuntary movement or decision), moral
choices
= Workable ethical theory: produces explanations that might be persuasive to a skeptical, yet
open minded audience.

Good Ethical Theory Supports Persuasive, Logical Arguments


1st Theory = Subjective Relativism
What Is Relativism?
Relativism
No universal norms of right and wrong
One person can say X is right, another can say X is wrong, and both can be
right
Subjective relativism
Each person decides right and wrong for himself or herself only
Whats right for you may not be right for me
Case for Subjective Relativism
Well-meaning and intelligent people disagree on moral issues
Ethical debates are disagreeable and pointless
Right conclusion will be right and wrong. Those support right got own reason and wrong got
own reason to support it. (Based on general and not on religion Farah Ain (gymnast outfit case)
debating on it is pointless)
Case against Subjective Relativism
Blurs distinction between doing what you think is right and doing what you want to do
[Grounded 3 months steal mother money, Got concert want go, if go out will violate
ground rule. I still go which is wrong. Thus, I cant argue using this]
Makes no moral distinction between the actions of different people
SR and tolerance [mengalah , like lazy to fight to agree or disagree on smtg] are two
different things
Decisions may not be based on reason
Not a workable ethical theory

2nd Theory = Cultural Relativism


Cultural Relativism in a Nutshell
What is right and wrong depends upon a societys actual moral guidelines
These guidelines vary from place to place and from time to time
A particular action may be right in one society at one time and wrong in other society or
at another time
Case for Cultural Relativism
Different social contexts demand different moral guidelines
It is arrogant for one society to judge another
Case against Cultural Relativism
Because two societies do have different moral views doesnt mean they ought to have
different views [For poor maybe stealing correct for rich will be wrong. In general they
know that stealing is wrong]
It doesnt explain how moral guidelines are determined
What if there are no cultural norms?
It doesnt account for evolution of moral guidelines.
It provides no way out for cultures in conflict
[Rohingya vs Myanmar]
Existence of many acceptable practices does not imply all practices are acceptable
(many/any fallacy)
Societies do, in fact, share certain core values
Only indirectly based on reason
Not a workable ethical theory

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