scholarly journals Concepts of Ethics and Their Application to AI

2021 ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
Bernd Carsten Stahl
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Ethical Evaluation ◽  
Ai Ethics ◽  
Profit Maximisation

AbstractAny discussion of the ethics of AI needs to be based on a sound understanding of the concept of ethics. This chapter therefore provides a brief overview of some of the key approaches to ethics with a particular emphasis on virtue ethics and the idea of human flourishing. The chapter reviews the purposes for which AI can be used, as these have a bearing on an ethical evaluation. Three main purposes are distinguished: AI forefficiency, optimisation and profit maximisation, AI forsocial control and AI for human flourishing. Given the focus on human flourishing in this book, several theoretical positions are introduced that provide insights into different aspects and ways of promoting human flourishing. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the currently widespread principle-based approach to AI ethics.

Humility and Human Flourishing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael W. Austin
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Family Life ◽  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Moral Virtue ◽  
Spiritual Disciplines ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Moral Theology ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Human Flourishing

In many Christian traditions, humility is often thought to play a central role in the moral and spiritual life. In this study of the moral virtue of humility, the methods of analytic philosophy are applied to the field of moral theology in order to analyze this virtue and its connections to human flourishing. The book is therefore best characterized as a work in analytic moral theology, and has two primary aims. First, it articulates and defends a particular Christian conception of the virtue of humility. It offers a Christological account of this trait, one that is grounded in the gospel accounts of the life of Christ as well as other key New Testament passages. The view of humility it offers and defends is biblically grounded, theologically informed, and philosophically sound. Second, this book describes ways in which humility is constitutive of and conducive to human flourishing, Christianly understood. It argues that humility is rational, benefits its possessor, and contributes to its possessor being good qua human. It also examines several issues in applied virtue ethics. It considers some of the ways in which humility is relevant to several of the classic spiritual disciplines, such as prayer, fasting, solitude, silence, and service. It considers humility’s relevance to issues related to religious pluralism and tolerance. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of the relevance of humility for family life and how it can function as a virtue in the context of sport.

Can Human Flourishing Be Liberal?

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-247
Author(s):  
Gregory S. Alexander
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Dominant Form ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Contemporary Liberalism ◽  
The Relationship

The renewed interest in virtue ethics raises again a persistent question, namely, the relationship between the virtue ethics theory and liberalism as a political philosophy. Virtue ethicists focus on the good—i.e., human flourishing—and debate what constitutes that good. This focus creates a problem for liberals who are rights-oriented, which is the dominant form of contemporary liberalism.The recent and timely book by Menachem Mautner, Human Flourishing, Liberal Theory, and the Arts, reminds us, however, that liberalism comes in many stripes. There is no one liberalism. Rather, there are many liberalisms. I discuss three aspects of Mautner’s remarkable and important book: first, his conception of human flourishing and its relationship to liberalism; second, his argument that a liberal political order committed to human flourishing ought to promote the arts; and third, his argument that the liberalism of flourishing is better able than neutralist liberalism to compete with religion in providing what Mautner calls “Big Meaning.”

The Production-Oriented Approach to the Ethical Criticism of Art

2020 ◽  
pp. 47-68
Author(s):  
Ted Nannicelli
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Virtue Epistemology ◽  
Moral Agent ◽  
Ethical Criticism ◽  
General Argument ◽  
Ethical Evaluation ◽  
Conceptual Space ◽  
Moral Agents ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Oriented Approach

This chapter sketches the general argument for the production-oriented approach to the ethical criticism of art. It begins by noting that at least some artworks (of performance art, for example) are isomorphic with the actions by which they are created. Such artworks are open to ethical evaluation in the same way that any action of a moral agent is open to ethical appraisal. This clears the conceptual space for the production-oriented approach. The chapter goes on to show that the production-oriented approach has an advantage over the interpretation-oriented approaches advocated by Booth, Devereaux, and Gaut in virtue of its ability to assign praise or blame to real moral agents who are responsible for their artworks. The chapter then bolsters the rationale for the production-oriented approach by appealing to anti-empiricist arguments in the aesthetics literature before drawing upon an analogy to similar arguments in virtue ethics and virtue epistemology.

scholarly journals Reclaiming Virtue Ethics for Economics

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 141-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigino Bruni ◽  
Robert Sugden
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Extrinsic Motivation ◽  
Market Exchange ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Market Interactions ◽  
Free Zone ◽  
Market Participants ◽  
Radical Critique ◽  
Human Actors

Virtue ethics is an important strand of moral philosophy, and a significant body of philosophical work in virtue ethics is associated with a radical critique of the market economy and of economics. Expressed crudely, the charge sheet is this: The market depends on instrumental rationality and extrinsic motivation; market interactions therefore fail to respect the internal value of human practices and the intrinsic motivations of human actors; by using market exchange as its central model, economics normalizes extrinsic motivation, not only in markets but also in social life more generally; therefore economics is complicit in an assault on virtue and on human flourishing. We will argue that this critique is flawed, both as a description of how markets actually work and as a representation of how classical and neoclassical economists have understood the market. We show how the market and economics can be defended against the critique from virtue ethics, and crucially, this defense is constructed using the language and logic of virtue ethics. Using the methods of virtue ethics and with reference to the writings of some major economists, we propose an understanding of the purpose (telos) of markets as cooperation for mutual benefit, and identify traits that thereby count as virtues for market participants. We conclude that the market need not be seen as a virtue-free zone.

Communication Ethics and Virtue

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janie M. Harden Fritz
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Media Ethics ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Moral Exemplars ◽  
Communication Ethics ◽  
Philippa Foot ◽  
Major Branch ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

Virtue approaches to communication ethics have experienced a resurgence over the last decades. Tied to rhetoric since the time of Aristotle, virtue ethics offers scholars in the broad field of communication an approach to ethics based on character and human flourishing as an alternative to deontology. In each major branch of communication scholarship, the turn to virtue ethics has followed a distinctive trajectory in response to concerns about the adequacy of theoretical foundations for academic and applied work in communication ethics. Recent approaches to journalism and media ethics integrate moral psychology and virtue ethics to focus on moral exemplars, drawing on the work of Philippa Foot and Rosalind Hursthouse, or explore journalism as a MacIntyrean tradition of practice. Recent work in human communication ethics draws on MacIntyre’s approach to narrative, situating communication ethics within virtue structures that protect and promote particular goods in a moment of narrative and virtue contention.

Virtue Ethics and Medical Law

2019 ◽  
pp. 11-25
Author(s):  
Robert Gay
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Medical Practice ◽  
Moral Philosophy ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Medical Law ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Medical Teams

Virtue ethics is a way of viewing the moral life in terms of the necessary dispositions which shape human action towards the good, and towards human flourishing. Thinking of the moral life in terms of virtue was the dominant approach to moral philosophy in ancient and medieval thought. Although largely absent as a major strand of thought in moral philosophy after the Enlightenment, it has key features which challenge the dominant approaches in moral philosophy. The second half of the twentieth century saw a revival in virtue ethics, inspired by philosophers such as Anscombe and MacIntyre. The Hippocratic tradition provides a virtue framework for medicine, and the revival of virtue ethics has led to further work to explore the importance of virtue in medical practice. In the morally and technically complex world of medical practice, the virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance are necessary for the doctor to act according to the best interests of the patient, which are in line with the proper ends of medicine. The law has a role in prohibiting acts which are not in accordance with the ends of medicine, which cannot be virtuous. It also has a role in helping to arrive at prudential decisions in cases where there are disputes between patients or their families and medical teams about a best course of action. Finally, medical law should have a role in cultivating virtue within medicine for the benefit of patients and doctors.

Guest Editors’ Introduction Reviving Tradition: Virtue and the Common Good in Business and Management

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejo José G. Sison ◽  
Edwin M. Hartman ◽  
Joan Fontrodona
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Human Biology ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
The Common Good ◽  
Universal Principles ◽  
The Common ◽  
Business And Management

ABSTRACT:Virtue ethics, the authors believe, is distinct and superior to other options because it considers, in the first place, which preferences are worth pursuing, rather than just blindly maximizing preferences, and it takes into account intuitions, emotions and experience, instead of acting solely on abstract universal principles. Moreover, virtue ethics is seen as firmly rooted in human biology and psychology, particularly in our freedom, rationality, and sociability. Work, business, and management are presented as vital areas for the development of virtues, not the least with a view to human flourishing. We conclude by introducing the articles included in this special issue.

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