Topic: Ethics At its simplest, ethics is a system of moral principles. They affect how people make decisions and lead their lives. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and society and is also described as moral philosophy. The term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean custom, habit, character or disposition. These are the dilemmas of Ethics: • How to live a good life • Our rights and responsibilities • The language of right and wrong • Moral decisions - what is good and bad for? Our concepts of ethics have been derived from religions, philosophies and cultures. They infuse debates on topics like abortion, human rights and professional conduct. Approaches to ethics Philosophers nowadays tend to divide ethical theories into three areas Meta ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. Meta-ethics deals with the nature of moral judgement. It looks at the origins and meaning of ethical principles. Normative ethics is concerned with the content of moral judgements and the criteria for what is right or wrong. Applied ethics looks at controversial topics like war, animal rights and capital punishment. What is the use of the ethics if ethical theories are to be useful in practice, they need to affect the way human beings behave. Some philosophers think that ethics does do this because they argue that if a person realises that it would be morally good to do something then it would be irrational for that person not to do it. But human beings often behave irrationally when they follow their 'gut instinct' even when their head suggests a different course of action. However ethics does provide good tools for thinking about moral issues. Ethics can provide a moral map, most moral issues get us pretty worked up, think of abortion and euthanasia for starters because these are such emotional issues we often let our hearts do the arguing while our brains just go with the flow. But there's another way of tackling these issues, and that's where philosophers can come in they offer us ethical rules and principles that enable us to take a cooler view of moral problems. So ethics provides us with a moral map, a framework that we can use to find our way through difficult issues. Ethics can pinpoint a disagreement of using the framework of ethics, two people who are arguing a moral issue can often find that what they disagree about is just one particular part of the issue, and that they broadly agree on everything else. That can take a lot of heat out of the argument, and sometimes even hint at a way for them to resolve their problem. But sometimes ethics doesn't provide people with the sort of help that they really want. Ethics doesn't give right answers because Ethics doesn't always show the right answer to moral problems. Indeed more and more people think that for many ethical issues there isn't a single right answer just a set of principles that can be applied to particular cases to give those involved some clear choices. Some philosophers go further and say that all ethics can do is eliminate confusion and clarify the issues. After that it's up to each individual to come to their own conclusions. Many people want there to be a single right answer to ethical questions. They find moral ambiguity hard to live with because they genuinely want to do the right thing, and even if they can't work out what that right thing is, they like the idea that 'somewhere' there is one right answer. Ethics, broadly is concerned with the meaning of all aspects of human behaviour. Theoretical normative ethics aims to differentiate right from wrong. Business ethics also called corporate ethics, is a form of applied ethics or professional ethics that examines the ethical and moral principles and problems that arise in a business environment. It can also be defined as the written and unwritten codes of principles and values, determined by an organization’s culture, that govern decisions and actions within that organization. It applies to all aspects of business conduct on behalf of both individuals and the entire company. There are three parts to the discipline of business ethics personal is like a micro scale, professional and corporate. All three are intricately related. It is helpful to distinguish among them because each rests on a slightly different set of assumptions and requires a slightly different focus in order to be understood. However, behaving in an ethical manner can create positive business results. A business environment that promotes and upholds strong values is usually a happier and more productive workplace, and customers receive good service so they keep coming back. In addition to work behaviour, I believe that ethical principles should guide our personal and professional lives. Being ethical requires looking at universal values and that is the decision matrix people can use in their business and personal lives. In addition to the six pillars of character and its offers of Ethical principles for Business effective Honesty, Integrity, Promise-Keeping and Trustworthiness, Loyalty, Fairness, Concern for Others, Respect for Others , Law Abiding, Commitment to Excellence, Leadership, Reputation, Morale and Accountability. Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Definition of ethics: Ethics is simplest and it’s a system of moral principles. Ethics is concerned with what is good for individuals and for the society and is also described as moral philosophy. The Ethic term is derived from the Greek word ethos which can mean custom, habit, character or disposition. Below are the types of ethics: 1. Supernaturalism. 2. Subjectivism. 3. Consequentialism. 4. Intuitionism. 5. Emotivism. 6. Duty-based ethics. 7. Virtue ethics. 8. Situation ethics. Principles of ethics: The principles are beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy, justice; truth-telling and promise-keeping. What is the difference between ethics and morals? According to this understanding, ‘ethics’ leans towards decisions based upon individual character, and the more subjective understanding of right and wrong by individuals whereas ‘morals’ emphasises the widely-shared communal or societal norms about right and wrong These are the main Branches of Ethics • Descriptive Ethics. • Normative Ethics. • Meta Ethics. • Applied Ethics. • Ethics of artificial intelligence
Al ethics is a set of values, principles, and techniques that employ widely accepted standards of right and wrong to guide moral conduct in the development and use of AI technologies. The field of AI ethics has largely emerged as a response to the range of individual and societal harms that the misuse, abuse, poor design, or negative unintended consequences of AI systems may cause. As a way to orient you to the importance of building a robust culture of AI ethics. Robot Ethics- The term ‘robot ethics’ refers to the morality of how humans design, construct, use and treat robots. It considers both how artificially intelligent beings may be used to harm humans and how they may be used to benefit humans.
Robot rights: Robot the term robot ethics refers to the morality of how humans design, construct, use and treat robots. It considers both how artificially intelligent beings may be used to harm humans and how they may be used to benefit humans. Robot rights is the concept that people should have moral obligations towards their machines, similar to human rights or rights it has been suggested that robot rights, such as a right to exist and perform its own mission, could be linked to robot duty to serve human, by analogy with linking human rights to human duties before society. These could include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression and equality before the law. Experts disagree whether specific and detailed laws will be required soon or safely in the distant future. Glenn McGee reports that sufficiently humanoid robots may appear by 2020. Ray Kurzweil sets the date at 2029. Another group of scientists meeting in 2007 supposed that at least 50 years had to pass before any sufficiently advanced system would exist. The philosophy of Sentientism grants degrees of moral consideration to all sentient beings, primarily humans and most non-human animals. If artificial or alien intelligence show evidence of being sentient, this philosophy holds that they should be shown compassion and granted rights. Rights is the concept that people should have moral obligations towards their machines, similar to human rights or animal rights. It has been suggested that robot rights, such as a right to exist and perform its own mission, could be linked to robot duty to serve human, by analogy with linking human rights to human duties before society. These could include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression and equality before the law. What is Ethics are Being ethical is also not the same as following the law. The law often incorporates ethical standards to which most citizens subscribe. But laws, like feelings, can deviate from what is ethical. Our own pre-Civil War slavery laws and the old apartheid laws of present-day South Africa are grotesquely obvious examples of laws that deviate from what is ethical. Finally being ethical is not the same as doing whatever society accepts. In any society, most people accept standards that are, in fact, ethical. But standards of behaviour in society can deviate from what is ethical. An entire society can become ethically corrupt. Moreover, if being ethical were doing whatever society accepts, then to find out what is ethical, one would have to find out what society accepts. To decide what I should think about abortion, for example, I would have to take a survey of American society and then conform my beliefs to whatever society accepts. But no one ever tries to decide an ethical issue by doing a survey. Further, the lack of social consensus on many issues makes it impossible to equate ethics with whatever society accepts. Some people accept abortion but many others do not. If being ethical were doing whatever society accepts, one would have to find an agreement on issues which does not, in fact, exist. What, then, is ethics? Ethics is two things. First, ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, ethical standards include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well-founded reasons. Secondly, ethics refers to the study and development of one's ethical standards. As mentioned above, feelings, laws, and social norms can deviate from what is ethical. So it is necessary to constantly examine one's standards to ensure that they are reasonable and well-founded. Ethics also means, then, the continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and our moral conduct, and striving to ensure that we, and the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly based.