Reading00: My Ethical Framework
The concept of right and wrong seems relatively simple on the surface, but in reality it can be an extraordinarily complicated topic. With so many differing opinions on what is and is not moral, it can be very difficult to decide what (if any) framework to follow. Many people find it easier to simply slide into the relativistic stance that right and wrong depends completely on the person or culture.
Personally, I don’t know exactly what to call my stance, but the core of my position is that I am vehemently anti-relativist. I think that relativism is one of the most dangerous ideas to emerge in recent years. It can be used to justify almost anything, including unspeakable things from female genital mutilation to repression of speech. I am quite disturbed that the technology industry has seemed to embrace a form of cultural relativism regarding privacy and freedom of speech. If a company takes the stand that privacy is of the upmost importance and refuses to create a backdoor for American government investigators, then the same company should absolutely not build a system that allows the Chinese government such privileges simply due to the different culture and laws there. I believe such behavior to be extremely hypocritical, but it can be easily justified with a relativist worldview. Therefore, the first principle of my ethical framework is that morality is absolute.
Now that I have described what I feel to be an absolutely unacceptable approach to ethics, I will move on to a more hazy topic – how I actually judge the morality of actions. I don’t think my personal ethics fall into one of the classical buckets, but I would describe my views as falling somewhere in between the Kantian and Utilitarian positions. I believe first and foremost that the dignity of human life should be respected completely. However, I will not go so far as to wholly embrace the Kantian position that whether an action is right or wrong does not depend on its consequences but on whether it fulfills our duty as humans (the categorical imperative). I do believe that there are some things that are never acceptable. For instance, using new technology to test genetic enhancements on humans without their consent is something I think is always evil regardless of potential positive outcomes. However, there are some less severe cases where I think the ends can justify some otherwise questionable means. One such case is the currently controversial topic of data privacy. While I think it is immoral for the government to indiscriminately target all civilians and access their personal data, I think that an intelligence agency hacking into a suspected terrorist’s information to attempt to discover information about a potential attack is probably just.
In summary, I take the Kantian position that there are certain things that simply are never acceptable, but in more general and less severe cases, I take more of a utilitarian position that the intended outcome of some actions can justify methods that could otherwise be seen as immoral.