What is the relationship between computer technology and ethical issues?

ABSTRACT

The question of how a technology can generate an ethical issue generally goes unasked. The question is interesting in its own right and also important for understanding the two things that are brought together in the question, technology and ethics. Focusing on computer technology, the question is answered here first by examining the language used to introduce computer ethical issues and, second, by examining the debate about who should teach and do research on computer ethics. The answer involves acknowledging the complex relationship between computer technology, society, and ethics. Computer technologies shape (and are shaped by) social contexts, social arrangements and values, and these are the subject matter of ethical analysis.

KEYWORDS:

• Technology and ethics
• technology and humanities
• computer ethics
• science, technology and society
• STS
• interdisciplinary science
• interdisciplinary research and education
• technical expertise
• teaching ethics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For examples, see Databanks in a Free Society: Computers, Record-Keeping and Privacy by Alan F. Westin and Michael A. Baker, (1972); Records, Computers, and the Rights of Citizens, a report of the Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data Systems, (1973); and the Privacy Protection Study Commission's report Personal Privacy in an Information Society, (1977).

2 Faculty from many different humanities and social science fields are often lumped together into the category of ethicists.

3 Such expansion would, of course, not be necessary if programs training researchers and teachers specifically in computer ethics existed.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Deborah G. Johnson

Deborah G. Johnson recently retired as the Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics in the STS Program in the School of Engineering at the University of Virginia. Best known for her work on computer ethics and engineering ethics, Johnson's research examines the ethical, social, and policy implications of technology, especially information technology. Johnson has published seven books including one of the first textbooks on computer ethics in 1985 [Computer Ethics, Prentice Hall]. Her most recent book, Engineering Ethics, Contemporary and Enduring Debates, was recently published by Yale University Press (2020).