ES2: Basic Elements of Ethical Analysis

Three basic elements of ethical analysis that students need to learn and be able to use in their decision-making are: 1) ethical claims can and should be discussed rationally, 2) ethical choices cannot be avoided, and 3) some easy ethical approaches are questionable. Because students will need to defend their opinions and decisions when they work within organizations and teams, they need to be able to discern the reasons behind their opinion and decisions and to evaluate them. Ethical analysis should be introduced in a module dedicated to the presentation of classical ethical frameworks and principles. The ethical dimensions of design and implementation decisions should be discussed in technical classes so that students will learn to view ethical decision-making as a crucial part of system development. Students will see that, in some cases, it is easy to determine correct behavior for a computer professional, and, in other cases, a careful ethical analysis is needed to identify best choices in situations that raise difficult ethical issues.

Recurring concepts:

Lecture topics (3 hours):

• ES2.1 Ethical claims can and should be discussed rationally.
• ES2.2 Ethical choices cannot be avoided.
• ES2.3 Some easy ethical approaches are questionable.

Suggested laboratories (3 hours)

Connections:

Prerequisites: a semester of computer programming