PHIL20008 Ethical Theory

Applying Ethical Theory

Introduction

This essay aims to discuss the ethics of information technology. The case study considered in this essay is Student and Sensors. This essay provides a detailed idea about the case in consideration and a detailed analysis and discussion of the considered case study is provided. The case study is analysed from the perspective of four ethical theories, which are utilitarianism, deontology, contract, and virtue and appropriate conclusion is provided along with some suitable recommendations.

The technology of internet has helped the education domain by providing better facilities to the students. The traditional practices of teaching has improved along with the changes in the infrastructure of the domain (Lucas, Van Wee & Maat, 2016).

Discussion

The considered case study discusses about the use of CatCard to monitor the routines of the students and their daily behaviour. The students have to take access using the CatCard to avail some facilities that are restricted. The organisation then makes a database of the entry points and entry timings of all the accessed CatCards to understand the behaviour of the students. If a student is found to be accessing some part of the campus at a certain point of time regularly then it can be concluded from the database that the individual needs to have access to some area in the campus.

The prospect of utilitarianism, deontology, virtue, and contract from this case study can be understood as:

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is the understanding of a situation that creates maximum utility. This is the total sum of all the pleasure from an action. This is the variety of consequentialism that states the consequences of an act are the standard of right or wrong. The proponents of utilitarianism have distressed on several points, like whether the actions should be chosen on the basis of the likely consequences or whether the agents should imitate to the rules that can maximise utility (Melden, 2013). The theory of utilitarianism has some troubles when it is applied for accounting of values like individual rights and justice (Broad, 2014). As an example, a case in a hospital where the lives of four people depend on the receiving organ transplants. If the company get a willing person who is ready to donate their organs then it would serve a greater good but it can be considered unethical to carry out this kind of act. The utility in the considered case study is that the CatCards can be useful for the school to monitor the habits of the students. The school can have an idea about the size of the social circle of a student in the school and this will help the academic advisors to monitor the social condition of the students. There is an ethical consideration about the violation of privacy of the students but it is lower than the benefits that the school will gain with this kind of approach.

Deontology

 This is the theory of normative ethics that argues that, morality of any action must be based on the decision, which determines the action itself is ethical or unethical. A moral responsibility may rise from an internal or external source, like a set of rules that is intrinsic to the universe, religious law, or some set of cultural or personal values depending on the deontological ethics under deliberation (Crossan, Mazutis & Seijts, 2013). The major advantage of deontology is the flexibility, which marks it easier for living in a varied world where several people have variety of practices and beliefs that are different from one another. In some cases, people think that the practice of deontology is too flexible (Sandler, 2013). The morality of the use of CatCards is that it can be offensive to some of the student of the school as it is subjected to penetrate the privacy of the students and for the staffs and the academic teachers, it can be useful as it can used to monitor the activities of the students along with their education.

Contract

 The ethical study of contract determines the legitimacy of an authority of a particular state over an individual. The social contract influences postulate that entities have consented, either implicitly or explicitly for giving up some of the freedom that the individual possess to any authority in interchange of inhibiting the remaining rights (Sieber & Tolich, 2013). The central discussion of a social contract method is that the political and law order human creations and they are not natural. The political directive and the social contract it generates are basically the pathways towards an end which are the benefit of the involved individuals and genuine merely to the degree that they accomplish their measure of the contract. It is found that people provide consent for joining a society and be governed by the higher authority.  This type of consent provides legitimacy to the higher authority. Theory of social contract that is implicit is comprised in the principles of explicit agreement. The major difference between the explicit consent and implicit consent is that the explicit consent is designed for leaving no room for misunderstanding (Yu, 2013). In the considered case study, it is observed that the students are provided with CatCards that are used to monitor the activities of the students. The students provided their consent to monitor their activities and help them whenever required and if there is a case of any hesitation from the student, the academic advisors can provide some insight about the habits of the students and help them in any possible way.

Virtue

 The ethics of virtue is a comprehensive term that highlights the role of virtue and a character rather than either one doing the duty of an individual or acting for bringing the good consequences (Morales-Sánchez & Cabello-Medina, 2013). The ethics of virtue is categorised in three main groups: care ethics, eudemonism, and theories that are agent based. Virtues in human flourishing is based on the distinctive function of an individual. A theory that is agent based highlights the virtues that are determined by common-sense perceptions that is easily judged to be commendable traits in various people (Hursthouse, 2013). Another branch of virtue ethics, which is ethics of care, challenges the thinking that ethics must focus exclusively on autonomy and justice (Prior, 2016). In the considered case study, it can be found that the school is doing an act of virtue and looking after the students of the institution. However, the issue with introducing this innovation is that the privacy of the students can be violated and it cannot be an ethical task.

Recommendation

After conducting an extensive analysis of the ethical theories, it is recommended the use of CatCards in the education institution is an unethical act as it violates the privacy of the students. The use of this method can be executed with proper authentication from the students and it should be always properly monitored. The data collected in the database of the institution should be properly secured as it contains sensitive data of the students.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of CatCards in the schools can be an unethical practice. The activities of the students are recorded and the records are maintained in a database. The technology of internet has helped the education domain by providing better facilities to the students. Utilitarianism is the understanding of a situation that creates maximum utility. This is the total sum of all the pleasure from an action. This is the theory of normative ethics that argues that, morality of any action must be based on the decision, which determines the action itself is ethical or unethical. The ethical study of contract determines the legitimacy of an authority of a particular state over an individual. The social contract influences postulate that entities have consented, either implicitly or explicitly for giving up some of the freedom that the individual possess to any authority in interchange of inhibiting the remaining rights. : The ethics of virtue is a comprehensive term that highlights the role of virtue and a character rather than either one doing the duty of an individual or acting for bringing the good consequences. The ethics of virtue is categorised in three main groups: care ethics, eudemonism, and agent based theories.

References

Broad, C. D. (2014). Five types of ethical theory. Routledge.

Crossan, M., Mazutis, D., & Seijts, G. (2013). In search of virtue: The role of virtues, values and character strengths in ethical decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 113(4), 567-581.

Hursthouse, R. (2013). Normative virtue ethics. ETHICA, 645.

Lucas, K., Van Wee, B., & Maat, K. (2016). A method to evaluate equitable accessibility: combining ethical theories and accessibility-based approaches. Transportation, 43(3), 473-490.

Melden, A. (2013). Ethical theories. Read Books Ltd.

Morales-Sánchez, R., & Cabello-Medina, C. (2013). The role of four universal moral competencies in ethical decision-making. Journal of Business Ethics, 116(4), 717-734.

Prior, W. J. (2016). Virtue and knowledge: An Introduction to ancient Greek ethics. Routledge.

Sandler, R. L. (2013). Environmental virtue ethics. International Encyclopedia of Ethics.

Sieber, J. E., & Tolich, M. B. (2013). Planning ethically responsible research (Vol. 31). Sage.

Yu, J. (2013). The ethics of Confucius and Aristotle: Mirrors of virtue. Routledge.