PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

CDT409
Conscience, Egoism, Kant
Conscience
Egoism (Psychological and Ethical)
Immanuel Kants Deontological* Ethics
Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Mlardalen University
2007

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* deon = duty 2

The Seven Essential Virtues

defining Moral IQ
Conscience
Empathy Wisdom*
Conscience Courage*
Self-Control Temperance*
Respect Justice*
Tolerance Integrity
Fairness Responsibility
Kindness Honesty

Based on: Lawrence M. Hinman, Ph.D.

Director, The Values Institute
University of San Diego

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*Aristotles cardinal virtues
 The Origins of Conscience Conscience

Etymology:
The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to
cum + scire = to know with one's conduct together with the urge to prefer
As science (scire) means knowledge, conscience etymologically means right over wrong.
self-knowledge . . . A source of moral or ethical judgment or
But the English word implies a moral standard of action in the mind as
well as a awareness of our own actions.
pronouncement.
Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct.
The part of the superego in psychoanalysis that
judges the ethical nature of one's actions and
thoughts.
Present in most cultures
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The Biological Origins of Conscience Function of Conscience

Conscience biological mechanism is Conscience is a mechanism which judges our own actions, as
probably genetically determined, while its being right or wrong, good or bad, and punishes us with its
content is learnt, like language, as part of a condemnation (disapprobation), or rewards us with its approval
culture. For instance, one person may feel a (approbation), according as these are, or are not, conformed to
moral duty to go to war, another feels a the moral standard.
moral duty to avoid war under any
circumstances.
Conscience implies both a knowledge of our duty and an ability to
Studies of brain damage show that damage
perform it.
to the anterior prefrontal cortex of the brain
results in the reduction or elimination of
inhibitions, with a radical change in behavior
patterns. When the damage occurs to
adults, they may still be able to perform
moral reasoning; but when it occurs to
children, they may never develop that ability.

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 Characteristics of Conscience Medieval Background

Conscience is the steering-gear and a corrective mechanism that

forces us to act in accordance with our ethical norms
Both negative (remorse, guilt, regret) and positive (good, clear Conscience is the power of reason and
conscience) discernment applied to moral issues
Usually only a guide to ones own behavior - not oriented toward Develop an informed and sensitive
judging others conscience by living in a Christian
community (defining the norm)

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Deadlock in Conscience
The Central Question The case of Huck and Jim

If conscience represents the urge to conform to moral principals, In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
what happens in case of conflicting principles?
Huck is faced with the dilemma of
How to reconcile turning in his friend Jim, a runaway
Loyalty to the friend slave.
Loyalty to society Huck would despise himself if
in case when there is a conflict between the two? he turned Jim in
Huck feels he is going
against his conscience by not
turning Jim into the
authorities
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Mark Twain, THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (born Samuel L Clemens)
11 (Tom Sawyer'sComrade) 12
http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/finn/finntitl.html (e-book)
 Unity of Virtues? Unity of Virtues?
Responsibly in a Professional Role Responsibly in a Professional Role

Aristotle defended a strong unity of virtue" thesis - the unity of the
four cardinal virtues (wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice).
Today most ethicists would agree in sharply rejecting the unity of
virtue.
Character is invariably riddled with "moral gaps. Character traits are
situation-sensitive, moral virtues are enormously varied (and
sometimes in conflict), and both situations and personalities vary
enormously.
(Owen Flanagan in the Varieties of Moral Personality)

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Unity of Virtues? Unity of Virtues?

Responsibly in a Professional Role Responsibly in a Professional Role

Clearly a person's character is relevant to their acting responsibly

Moral gaps arise not only from having some virtues (for example
generosity) and lacking others (truthfulness), but in manifesting
the same virtues in some contexts, roles, or dimensions of roles,
but not others.
in a professional role.
The most important of these are humaneness, self-control, general
responsibility, and honesty (both trustworthiness and truthfulness).
Professionals generally are placed in positions of trust, serving an
important need of client or society. The specific importance of trust
is broad-based and in varying degrees open-ended.

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 Conscience in Professional Life Conscience in Professional Life

We all agree, for example, that college professors should

Issues about private conscience in professional life are
notoriously complex. How far should we allow private conscience
to guide professional conduct when it departs from the moral
consensus expressed in the relevant code of ethics?
have great freedom to express their views. Academic
freedom is central to what college professors are
supposed to be.
But what about an atheist philosopher who grades down a
student for defending religion in an essay? The professor
is wrong, of course. The question is what should we, his
colleagues, do about it?

Here, I think, a code of ethics is essential in setting and

enforcing standards-even though codes are always vague
and incomplete.

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Conscience in Professional Life The Freudian Critique of Conscience

Sigmund Freud (1932)

The Anatomy of the Mental Personality
What does it require by way of setting aside personal values in
order to meet professional responsibilities, to avoid greed, sexual ID (instinctive part, driven by
dominance, paternalism, or conflicts of interest, and otherwise to pleasure and pain, fully
meet minimum standards for practice of the profession? unconscious )
EGO (mostly conscious, deals
with external reality )
SUPER-EGO (partly conscious, is
the conscience or the internal
moral judge. )

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 The Freudian Critique of Conscience
Egoism
Freuds saw conscience as the voice of
the superego
Initially, the internalized voice of
parental restrictions
Later, the internalization of
societal prohibitions
Almost exclusively negative,
saying no to the id.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

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Analyzing the Psychological Egoists

Two Types of Egoism
Claim

Two types of egoism:

The psychological egoist claims that
Psychological egoism people always act selfishly or in their
Asserts that as a matter of fact we do always act own self-interest.
selfishly - descriptive One of the earlier advocates of this
Ethical egoism view was Thomas Hobbes, who saw
life as nasty, brutish, and short.
Maintains that we should always act selfishly

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

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 Psychological Egoism:
Psychological Egoism
A Common and Widespread Belief
Folk psychology What exactly does the psychological egoist maintain? Two
possible interpretations:
There is a widespread belief that people are just
#1: We act selfishly, or
out for themselves #2: We act in our self-interest

Social Darwinism: everyone is just trying to survive.

Social sciences
Economics: rational agent theory
Foreign policy
Belief that other nations will always act solely in
terms of self-interest

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What Does it Mean to be Selfish? What Does it Mean to be Selfish?

If we are selfish, do we only do things that If we are selfish, do we only do things we

are in our genuine self-interest? believe are in our self-interest?
What about the chain smoker? Is What about those who believe
this person acting out of genuine that sometimes they act
self-interest? altruistically?
In fact, the smoker may be acting Does anyone truly believe
selfishly (doing what he wants Mother Theresa was completely
without regard to others) but not selfish?
self-interestedly (doing what will Think of the actions of parents. Dont
ultimately benefit him). parents sometimes act for the sake of their
children, even when it is against their narrow Mother Theresa (1910-1997)
self-interest to do so?

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 Re-conceptualizing Psychological Re-conceptualizing Psychological
Egoism, 1 Egoism, 2
Instead of seeing this one a single scale, we can see egoism and altruism
The standard view of human motivation embedded in as two independent axes:
High
discussions of psychological egoism sees egoism and Altruism
Conceptualizing the issue in this
altruism as opposite poles of a single scale: way allows some actions to be
Human Motivation done both for the sake of others
and for ones own sake, and
avoids falling into a false Low High
Egoism Altruism dichotomy between altruism and Egoism Egoism
egoism.
The premise is that an increase in egoism automatically However, an additional
distinction remains to be draw.
results in a decrease in altruism, and vice versa.
Low
Altruism

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Re-conceptualizing Psychological
Egoism, 3 Re-conceptualizing Psychological
In addition to having two independent axes, we must distinguish between Egoism, 4
the intentions of actions and their consequences. Thus we get two graphs:

This double grid suggests that any given action can be ranked according to
Intentions Consequences both:
Intentions
Strongly intended to help others High beneficial To others
Consequences
And that, for each of these two issues, each act can be ranked along two
independent axes, concern/consequences for self and
Not Strongly Highly Highly concern/consequences for other.
intended intended harmful beneficial
to benefit to benefit to self to self
self self

Highly harmful to others

Strongly intended to harm others

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 Be My Valentine?
Ethical Egoism
Love, we are repeatedly taught, consists of self-sacrifice. Love based
on self-interest, we are admonished, is cheap and sordid. True love, we
are told, is altruistic. But is it?
Genuine love is the exact opposite. It is the most selfish experience
possible, in the true sense of the term: it benefits your life in a way that
involves no sacrifice of others to yourself nor of yourself to others.
Gary Hull
Valentines Day, 1998
Ayn Rand Institute

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Ethical Egoism Versions of Ethical Egoism

Selfishness is praised as a virtue Personal Ethical Egoism

Ayn Rand, The Virtue of I am going to act only in my own interest, and
Selfishness everyone else can do whatever they want.
May appeal to psychological egoism as a Individual Ethical Egoism
foundation
Everyone should act in my own interest.
Often very compelling for high school
students Universal Ethical Egoism
Each individual should act in his or her own self
interest.
Ayn Rand (1905-1982).
(born Alice Rosenbaum)

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 Altruism Arguments for Ethical Egoism

Unselfish concern for the welfare of others; selflessness, charity,

generosity. Altruism is demeaning.
Zoology. Instinctive cooperative behavior that is detrimental (harmful) to Acting selfishly creates a better world.
the individual but contributes to the survival of the species.
It doesnt result in such a different world after all.

demean = degrade oneself

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Argument for Ethical Egoism:

What is great in man is that he is a bridge
Altruism is Demeaning

Friedrich Nietzsche argued that altruism was

demeaning because it meant that an "Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman -- a
individual was saying that some other person
was more important than that individual. rope over an abyss...What is great in man is that he is a bridge and
not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is a transition..."
Nietzsche saw this as denigrating oneself, Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
putting oneself down by valuing oneself less
than the other.

Comment. Concern for the welfare of others

does not mean no concern for ones own self!
Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844-1900)

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 Argument for Ethical Egoism: Acting Selfishly
Creates a Better World
Ethical egoists sometimes maintain that if each person took care of
himself/herself, the overall effect would be to make the world a
better place for everyone.
Epistemological: Each person is best suited to
know his or her own best interests.
Moral: Helping others makes them dependent,
which ultimately harms them.
Comment. It is rational for people to solve together their
common problems. Building e.g. state institutions, that exist
everywhere in the world means putting energy in a common
societal project that is not in the first place meant to satisfy my
own personal needs.
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Criticism of Ethical Egoism
Cannot be consistently universalized.
(But can work in sports!).
Presupposes a world of indifferent strangers.
Difficult to imagine love or even friendship between ethical egoists.
Seems to be morally insensitive.
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Argument for Ethical Egoism: Ethical egoism
doesnt result in a different world.
This argument presupposes the people in fact
already act selfishly (i.e, psychological egoism) and
are just pretending to be altruistic.
If psychological egoism is true, then we should admit
its truth and get rid of our hypocrisy.
Comment. It may not make a big difference in a
world of independent, strong and healthy adults, but
in a world with children and people at risk or in need,
they would be put in further jeopardy.
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Universalizing Ethical Egoism
Can the ethical egoist consistently will that everyone else
follow the tenets of ethical egoism?
It seems to be in ones self-interest to be selfish
oneself and yet get everyone else to act
altruistically (especially if they act for your benefit).
This leads to individual ethical egoism.
Some philosophers such as Jesse Kalin have argued that in
sports we consistently universalize ethical egoism: we intend
to win, but we want our opponents to try as hard as they
can!
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 Ethical Egoism: Egoism, Altruism, and
A philosophy for a world of strangers the Ideal World
Aristotle
Tocquevilles
Kant Self-interest rightly understood
Some philosophers have argued that ethical egoism Ideally, we seek a society in High
is, at best, appropriate to living in a world of strangers which self-interest and regard for Altruism
others convergethe green
that you do not care about. zone. Self-interest
Self-sacrificing and regard
Egoism at the expense of others altruism for others
and altruism at the expense of converge
self-interest both create worlds in Low High
which goodness and self-regard Egoism Egoism
are mutually exclusivethe Not beneficial Self-interest
yellow zone. either to self at the expense
or others of others
No one want the red zone, which
is against both self-interest and Low
regard for others. Drug addiction Altruism
Hobbess
Alcoholism, etc. State of Nature,
Nietzsche?
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Sinking Titanic: Egoism vs. Altruism

(Even Risks in Technical Systems) Immanuel Kant
The Ethics of Duty
(Deontological* Ethics)

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47 * deon = duty
 Living by Rules Categorical Imperatives

Always act in such a way that the maxim of your

action can be willed as a universal law of humanity.
Most of us live by rules much --Immanuel Kant
of the time.
Some of these are what Kant
called Categorical
Imperatives.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

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The Ethics of Respect (1) The Ethics of Respect (2)

One of Kants most lasting contributions to Respect has become a fundamental moral concept in
moral philosophy was his emphasis on the contemporary West
notion of respect (Achtung). There are rituals of respect in almost all cultures.
Two central questions:
What is respect?
Who or what is the proper object of respect?

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 Kant on Respect Kant on Respecting Persons

Act in such a way that you always treat
humanity, whether in your own person or in
the person of any other, never simply as a
means, but always at the same time as an
end.
Kant brought the notion of respect (Achtung) to
the center of moral philosophy for the first time.
To respect people is to treat them as ends in
themselves. He sees people as autonomous,
i.e., as giving the moral law to themselves.
The opposite of respecting people is treating
them as mere means to an end.

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Using People as Mere Means Treating People as Ends in Themselves

What are the characteristics of treating people

The Tuskegee Syphilis as ends in themselves?
Experiments Not denying them relevant information
More than four hundred African
American men infected with Allowing them freedom of choice
syphilis went untreated for four
decades in a project the
government called the Tuskegee
Study of Untreated Syphilis in the
Negro Male.
Continued until 1972

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 Additional Cases What Is the Proper Object of Respect?
Plant Closing
Firing Long-Time Employees For Kant, the proper object of respect is the will. Hence,
respecting a person involves issues related to the will--
Medical Experimentation on Prisoners knowledge and freedom.
Medical Donations by Prisoners Other possible objects of respect:
Medical Consent Forms Feelings and emotions
The dead
Animals
The natural world

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Self-Respect Self-Respect

Is lack of proper self-respect a moral failing?

Aristotle and Self-Love
What is the difference between self-respect and self-
The Deferential* Wife love? Clearly, there is at least a difference in the
See article by Tom Hill, Servility and Self-Respect affective element.

*Deferential = Respectful, considerate

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 Self-respect, Self-regard, Self-love
Self-respect: Due respect for oneself, one's
character, and one's conduct.
Synonyms or near-synonyms of self-esteem include:
self-love (which can express overtones of self-promotion)
self-worth
self-regard
self-esteem
self-confidence (a sometimes disparaging term which can
(more than self-esteem) suggest excessive self-regard
The Kantian Heritage
What Kant Helped Us to See Clearly
The Admirable Side of Acting from Duty
The person of duty remains committed, not matter
how difficult things become.
The Evenhandedness of Morality
Kantian morality does not play favorites.
Respecting Other People
The notion of treating people as ends in
themselves is central to much of modern ethics.

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The Kantian Heritage The Kantian Heritage

Critique of Kants Deontology Critique of Kants Deontology
The Place of Consequences in the Moral Life
The Neglect of Moral Integration In order to protect the moral life from the changing of moral
The person of duty can have deep and conflicting luck, Kant held a very strong position that refused to attach
inclinations and this does not decrease moral worth moral blame to individuals who were acting with good will,
indeed, it seems to increase it in Kants eyes. even though some indirect bad consequences could be
The Role of Emotions foreseen.
For Kant, the emotions are always suspect because they are
changeable.
The Kantian Heritage
Conclusion
Overall, after two hundred years, Kant remains an absolutely
central figure in contemporary moral philosophy, one from
whom we can learn much even when we disagree with
him
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