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Sorting out the Uniqueness of Computer Ethical Issues Johnson In this paper I build on Moor's idea that the task of computer ethics is to fill policy vacuum's created by the introduction of computer and information technology. The traditionalist account proposes that to solve computer ethical issues (and fill the policy vacuums) all we have to do is apply traditional moral norms and principles. I argue against this position and propose instead that we think of computer ethical issues as new species of generic moral problems. Computer technology changes the instrumentation of human action. The new instrumentation changes the composition of action and it creates the possibility of actions and arrangements that were not possible before. Ethical analysis has not traditionally or explicitly focused on the instrumentation of action. Human action instrumented with computer technology is, nevertheless, human action. The ethical issues that arise can be understood in traditional moral terms though they often have features that are new and unusual. The ethical issues are new species of traditional moral issues.
Is Computer Ethics Unique? Maner The rise of various unique, or uniquely transformed, ethical issues supports the claim that computer ethics deserves to be regarded as an academic field in its own right. Some of these issues are unique because they inherit the unique properties of the technology that generates or transforms them. When we are unable to resolve these issues through non-computer moral analogies, we are forced to discover new moral values, formulate new moral principles and develop new policies.
Can Cyberspace Be Just? Moor The capacity and availability of computers has been increasing exponentially, and people are connected with others around the world in ways unparalleled in history. The web is J.S. Mill's dream machine to the extent that it enhances people's freedom of expression, pursuit of projects, and interaction with others. But, freedom can come at a cost to justice, and we need to be cautious when confronting concentrations of power and limitations of access in cyberspace as well as understanding some special features of cyberspace such as the invisibility factor and the unreality factor. Ultimately, the freedom of cyberspace may provide the best defense of justice in cyberspace.
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Who has the right to speak about Aids? Festa Shuold philosophers speak about Aids? In this contribution, which is intended to open a forum for the readers of ‘Etica e politica’, it is argued that not only philosophers but all the responsible members of community have the duty to discuss the procedures which rules the funding of Aids research. The underlying idea is that scientific progress in this field is better guaranteed by supplying an adequate support to competing seriously proposed programmes of research.
Sex virus? Ethical and political implications of Aids research Franchi e Marrone It is commonly thought that science is an ‘happy island’ where high standards of methodological and ethical rigour leave scarce room for unfairness, briberies, and frauds. However, a recently published book on Aids research (Luca Rossi, Sex virus, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1999) suggests that this is not always the case. Rossi’s book, which includes a number of enlightening interviews both with the supporters and the critics of the ‘standard view’ about Aids, is a good starting point for rethinking the Hiv-Aids causal hypothesis. In this paper it is argued that: 1) the standard Hiv-Aids hypothesis has been accepted - basically for extra-scientifical reasons - without sufficient confirming evidence; 2) there are well-grounded criticisms to the standard view, which are supported by respected members of scientific community; 3) these criticisms are subject to a systematic censorship; 4) the rules of funding in Aids research do not warrant an adequate economical support to the critics of the standard view. A general lesson which can be drawn from Aids research is that any intellectual, political, and economical obstacle to the proliferation of competing programmes of research is an obstacle to progress in any field of scientific enterprise.
Ethical Features of the Theory of Recollection Zannier After recalling Platonic concept of anŕmnesis -concept defined also with reference to the different notion of memory, the Greek mnčme -, I try to explain the possible gnosiological sense of theory of recollection, laying stress on its relations with the thesis of different levels of knowledge (opinion and science), corresponding to different ontological levels (empiric world and ideal word). Then, I attempt to explain the possible strict connection between the theory of anŕmnesis and basilar Platonic ethical concepts such those of purification, happiness and pleasure.
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