<Emphasis Type="Italic">Dis</Emphasis>closive Ethics and Information Technology: <Emphasis Type="Italic">Disclosing Facial Recognition Systems</Emphasis>

This paper is an attempt to present disclosive ethics as a framework for computer and information ethics – in line with the suggestions by Brey, but also in quite a different manner. The potential of such an approach is demonstrated through a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. The paper argues that the politics of information technology is a particularly powerful politics since information technology is an opaque technology – i.e. relatively closed to scrutiny. It presents the design of technology as a process of closure in which design and use decisions become black-boxed and progressively enclosed in increasingly complex socio-technical networks. It further argues for a disclosive ethics that aims to disclose the nondisclosure of politics by claiming a place for ethics in every actual operation of power – as manifested in actual design and use decisions and practices. It also proposes that disclosive ethics would aim to trace and disclose the intentional and emerging enclosure of politics from the very minute technical detail through to social practices and complex social-technical networks. The paper then proceeds to do a disclosive analysis of facial recognition systems. This analysis discloses that seemingly trivial biases in recognition rates of FRSs can emerge as very significant political acts when these systems become used in practice. Paper prepared for the Technology and Ethics Workshop at Twente     

Information technologies and the tragedy of the Good Will

Information plays a major role in any moral action. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) have revolutionized the life of information, from its production and management to its consumption, thus deeply affecting our moral lives. Amid the many issues they have raised, a very serious one, discussed in this paper, is labelled the tragedy of the Good Will. This is represented by the increasing pressure that ICT and their deluge of information are putting on any agent who would like to act morally, when informed about actual or potential evils, but who also lacks the resources to do much about them. In the paper, it is argued that the tragedy may be at least mitigated, if not solved, by seeking to re-establish some equilibrium, through ICT themselves, between what agents know about the world and what they can do to improve it.     

Chips,tags and scanners: Ethical challenges for radio frequency identification

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) systems identify and track objects, animals and, in principle, people. The ability to gather information obtained by tracking consumer goods, government documents, monetary transactions and human beings raises a number of interesting and important privacy issues. Moreover, RFID systems pose an ensemble of other ethical challenges related to appropriate uses and users of such systems. This paper reviews a number of RFID applications with the intention of identifying the technology’s benefits and possible misuses. We offer an overview and discussion of the most important ethical issues concerning RFID, and describes and examine some methods of protecting privacy. Norman G. Einspruch serves as a consultant to several high-technology companies, one of which is in the RFID components and systems business.     

消费主义伦理批判

随着＂消费社会＂的兴起,消费主义取代新教伦理成为支配资本运作的价值观基础。消费主义的支配作用使自然、社会、人及人的思想走向了＂单向度化＂,人类的生存和发展面临着一系列伦理困境与危机,思想与现实之间的批判性张力消失殆尽。面对这样的历史与思想语境,需要我们发挥道德哲学的否定性批判功能,在对消费主义的伦理反思与批判中,回归消费的本质,重新确立一种＂合理的＂消费伦理观,超越消费主义。对西方消费主义的伦理批判与超越,将为当今中国社会消费的和谐发展和新型社会秩序的形成提供富有启迪性的学理资源。     

罪和上帝的恩典——从伦理学角度赏析莎士比亚剧《麦克白》

这里指出麦克白之所以容易受巫婆们的影响并不是因为他过度的迷信,而是因为他自己邪恶的欲望诱使他犯下弑君的滔天大罪。上帝的恩典对于罪大恶极者也是毫无保留的：麦克白夫人精神失常而自杀,在众叛亲离的情况下,麦克白面对邓肯之子和他请来的英格兰援军的围攻,落得枭首的下场。阐明了任何时候公正、真实、节制、慷慨、坚忍、仁爱、谦逊、虔诚、忍耐、勇敢等优良品质是我们每个人应追求的目标。     

马克思的技术伦理思想及其当代价值

面对当代高技术社会的伦理困境,当代技术伦理导向马克思的技术伦理思想研究。作为一种系统的整体论,其技术伦理思想分为技术伦理的社会制度环境、组织制度条件和技术主体道德三个方面,并以技术史和工艺学实证研究为基础,为现代技术伦理的社会、技术和人的协同发展目标奠定了理论基础。     

Developing as an Ethical English Teacher: Valuing the Personal and Poetic in Professional Learning

This article draws upon virtue ethics to illustrate the importance of English teachers as ethical professionals. In doing so it focuses attention on the significance of the personal and poetic in professional learning. It is suggested that eschewing the personal and poetic in professional learning may contribute to the de‐professionalisation of English teachers and the commodification of the children they teach. Conversely, acknowledging the personal and poetic liberates teachers of English to develop as ethical professionals who teach for social justice and foster the ethical learning of their students. The article moves from a consideration of the importance of personal values to the value of poetry in professional learning.     

论提高师德修养 克服教师职业倦怠

目前,教师职业倦怠问题已经成为困扰我国教育事业发展的一个重要的问题。文章分析了教师职业倦怠产生的原因、表现及其危害,进而从提高教师职业道德素养角度,提出克服教师的职业倦怠的策略。     

基因工程的福祉与伦理之思

基因工程技术的发展给人类带来了巨大的利益,对人类和社会生活也产生了巨大的影响,它的发展趋势是不可逆转的。面对基因工程技术所带来的前所未有的挑战,传统的生命伦理道德要随着技术的进步提出新的实践规范,基因工程的发展也要适应生命伦理道德的框架。只有在基因工程技术进步与生命伦理道德发展的相互互动中,才能真正减少基因工程技术所带来的伦理问题的负面效应。