Ethic
Richard O. Mason
Applying
Ethics to Information Technology Issues
The articles in this special section express a common theme: the use of information technology in society is creating a rather unique set of ethical issues that requires the making of new moral choices on the part of society and has spawned special implications for its members. Technology itself is not the only, nor necessarily the most responsible, cause of these issues. All ethical questions arise initially out of human agency. Technology, due to its capability to augment mental and physical powers of human beings, does stand in the role of a coconspirator. The lure of power-enhancing capabilities makes technology an inducer of sorts, a necessary but not sufficient underpinning to many of the ethical issues we face today.
An ethical issue is said to arise whenever one party in pursuit of its goals engages in behavior that materially affects the ability of another party to pursue its goals. When the effect is helpful—good, right, just—we say the behavior is praiseworthy or exemplary. When, however, the effect is harmful— bad, wrong, unjust—the behavior is unethical. This purposeful theory of ethics is reflected in the issues discussed in these articles. For example, email and being online are applications of information technology, the lure of which is based on their ability to expand the scope, range, speed, and ease of interpersonal and corporate communications.
Useful as they are, the schemes and the manifold of issues addressed leave one question unanswered:
What moral guidance can be provided to the agents whose behavior create these issues? And, this question leads to others: How should the many knowledge workers, systems analysts, programmers, hardware designers, authors, executives, and so forth, who set in motion the actions which bring these issues to the fore, guide their own behavior?
Knowing their technology-based actions will intercede in the course
Applying
Ethics to Information Technology Issues
The articles in this special section express a common theme: the use of information technology in society is creating a rather unique set of ethical issues that requires the making of new moral choices on the part of society and has spawned special implications for its members. Technology itself is not the only, nor necessarily the most responsible, cause of these issues. All ethical questions arise initially out of human agency. Technology, due to its capability to augment mental and physical powers of human beings, does stand in the role of a coconspirator. The lure of power-enhancing capabilities makes technology an inducer of sorts, a necessary but not sufficient underpinning to many of the ethical issues we face today.
An ethical issue is said to arise whenever one party in pursuit of its goals engages in behavior that materially affects the ability of another party to pursue its goals. When the effect is helpful—good, right, just—we say the behavior is praiseworthy or exemplary. When, however, the effect is harmful— bad, wrong, unjust—the behavior is unethical. This purposeful theory of ethics is reflected in the issues discussed in these articles. For example, email and being online are applications of information technology, the lure of which is based on their ability to expand the scope, range, speed, and ease of interpersonal and corporate communications.
Useful as they are, the schemes and the manifold of issues addressed leave one question unanswered:
What moral guidance can be provided to the agents whose behavior create these issues? And, this question leads to others: How should the many knowledge workers, systems analysts, programmers, hardware designers, authors, executives, and so forth, who set in motion the actions which bring these issues to the fore, guide their own behavior?
Knowing their technology-based actions will intercede in the course
References: 2. Mason, R.O., Mason, F.M., and Culnan, M. J. Ethics of Information Management. Sage, Thousand Oaks, Calif., 1995. 4. May, W.F. The Physician’s Covenant. Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1983. 5. Ross, W.D. Moral Duties. Macmillan, London, 1969.