Normative Ethical Theories

• Normative ethical theories offer philosophical reasons for conclusions on ethical issues concerning technology, such as automated driving cars, patents for technological inventions, and cognitive-enhancing drugs.
• Normative ethics addresses questions of what is morally good or right, while meta-ethics examines the existence and nature of moral norms and judgments.
• Applied ethics uses normative ethical theories in specific cases.

Categories of Normative Ethical Theories

• Consequentialism: Moral goodness is determined by the consequences of actions or rules.
• Deontology: Individuals are bound by moral duties, and some actions are inherently right or wrong.
• Virtue Theory: Moral goodness is determined by whether actions stem from virtuous character traits.

Utilitarianism

• An action or rule is morally right if it leads to the best consequences (greatest good) for the greatest number of people.
• The moral course of action is to promote the general good by maximizing utility.
• Utility is the net good created by an action or rule, which can be defined in terms of human goods like happiness, health, and freedom.
• Classic utilitarians Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill defined utility in terms of happiness or pleasure.
• Bentham’s fundamental axiom: ‘the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the measure of right and wrong’.
• Utilitarianism prioritizes the best interests of everyone, unlike ethical egoism, which focuses on self-interest.
• Moral rightness is determined exclusively by the consequences of action.

Act Utilitarianism (AU) vs. Rule Utilitarianism (RU)

• AU: Actions that maximize utility are morally good.
• RU: Rules that maximize utility are morally good.
• AU and RU can be complementary theories, with AU assessing the morality of action in specific circumstances and RU assessing the morality of general rules.
• RU is applied to assess the morality of general rules (e.g., policies and laws).

Strengths of Utilitarianism

• Provides a concrete method for determining the moral course of action.
• Directs to define utility and weigh positive consequences against negative consequences.

Weaknesses of Utilitarianism

• Insensitivity to individual rights
• Neglect of intentions and character

Kantian Ethics

• Motives or intentions are essential to the morality of actions.
• Good will: the intention to do the right thing just because it is the right thing to do, independent of self-interest.
• Categorical Imperative (CI): A moral principle for determining the moral goodness and badness of action.
• CI: Duty to follow moral rules that could be applied universally and effectively by all people in similar situations.
• Universality Formulation: Act only in accordance with principles of action that could be consistently and effectively applied as a universal moral rule by all rational beings.
• Humanity Formulation: Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.
• All people should be respected because of their inherent value as persons.
• Coercion and lying are immoral because they violate the rights of others to consent and treat other persons as mere instruments.

Strengths of Kantian Ethics

• Provides an objective and impartial foundation for identifying moral duties.
• Morality of action is determined by whether motives for action are consistent with the CI, follow moral principles applied fairly and effectively to govern all rational beings.

Weaknesses of Kantian Ethics

• Rigidity: It is always wrong to violate duties prescribed by the CI.
• May seem overly rationalistic, and thus less sensitive to the particular contexts of ethical cases.

Ross’ Pluralism

• Moral goodness involves following a plurality of moral duties.
• Moral duties are self-evident and recognizable by rational agents.
• Intellectual appearances: initial reactions or impressions that seem self-evident.
• Prima facie moral duties: moral duties that one has an obligation to follow most of the time.

Ross’ Prima Facie Moral Duties

• Fidelity: Keep promises and tell the truth.
• Reparation: Correct wrongdoings inflicted on others.
• Gratitude: Return services to those who help.
• Non-injury (Non-maleficence): Do not harm others.
• Beneficence: Be kind and improve the well-being of others.
• Self-improvement: Improve your own well-being.
• Justice: Distribute benefits and burdens equably and evenly.

Strengths of Ross’ Pluralism

• Provides a list of moral duties that most people agree are good moral rules to follow.
• More directly addresses the particular circumstances surrounding ethical cases.

Weaknesses of Ross’ Pluralism

• Moral duties are not systematically derived.
• It will often be difficult to determine the moral course of action in cases where duties conflict.
• Reliance on moral intuitions.

Social Contract Theory

• Moral and political obligations are justified by an agreement among rational, informed agents to follow certain contractual rules.
• Contractarianism: Rational agreement is grounded in mutual self-interest.
• Contractualism: Rational agreement is grounded in the equal moral status of persons.
• Rawls' theory of justice: Political obligations should be governed by a respect for individual rights and a philosophy of fairness.
• Greatest equal liberty principle: Each person has an equal right to the most extensive total system of equal basic liberties compatible with a similar system of liberty for all.
• Difference principle: Inequalities in the distribution of goods are justified only if they benefit the least advantaged members of society.
• Gauthier defends a contractarian theory that justifies moral duties in terms of self-interest.
• Scanlon defends a contractualist theory that justifies moral obligations in terms of the Kantian ideal that all rational agents should be valued and respected equally.

Strengths of Social Contract Theories

• Offer resources for evaluating complex ethical cases where the interests of different groups conflict.
• Emphasize identifying and justifying moral (contractual) duties that are fair and impartial.

Weaknesses of Social Contract Theories

• Limited applicability.
• Rawlsian analyses are most relevant to issues of social justice and the state within liberal and democratic societies.
• Scanlon’s contractualism is most relevant for questions concerning an individual's moral obligations to one another.

Virtue Ethics

• Focuses on understanding how should one live and what sorts of persons one should be.
• Ultimate goal of ethics is to cultivate a good character and live a flourishing life, rather than just decide which actions are right and which are wrong.
• A strong character is made up of many different virtues (e.g., courage and generosity).
• Moral virtues represent an optimal point (‘mean’) between two vicious extremes.
• The rightness or wrongness of actions is determined by whether a person acts in accordance with virtuous or vicious characteristics.

Strengths of Virtue Ethics

• Offers guidance on how to acquire strengths of character.
• Developed and improved through experience, rather than by learning a rule and simply applying it.

Weaknesses of Virtue Ethics

• Not obviously applicable to complex ethical cases.
• Different virtues may push toward conflicting behavior and virtue ethics does not offer a procedure of weighing different virtues against one another.
• There is disagreement on what the correct moral virtues are and how virtues should be conceptualized.
• Some virtues identified by virtue theorists might reflect prevalent, culturally relative social norms, rather than universal virtues.
• Character traits are specific to situations.

Normative Ethics and Technology

• Normative ethical theories offer different philosophical reasons for thinking that a particular action (or rule) about technology is morally good or bad.
• These theories will often converge upon the same ethical conclusions albeit for different reasons.
• Where they differ is in the principled reasons that justify such conclusions.
• In the context of ethical cases concerning technology, different ethical theories provide alternative theoretical resources for evaluating and justifying ethical claims about actions or policies related to technology.