The Two Towers of Morality:

1
The Two Towers of Morality

• the Value of Teaching Ethics in Technical
  Communication

2
Our Journey Today

• How I traveled through the land of ethics and
  survived
• How I became a tour guide through the land of
  ethics
• What I have learned from all of this

3
English 514 semester of fear and loathing

• Requirement of the M.A. program at Boise State
• Universally feared
• Textbook contains chapters titled
• Duty and Reason, Immanuel Kant
• The Greatest Happiness Principle, John Stuart
  Mill
• The Indefinability of Good, G.E. Moore

4
Ethics what is it anyway?

• A way of doing things?
• A motto?
• The code of the west?
• Or is it just a way of sort right from wrong?

5
How hard can it be to tell right from wrong?

• Not very, as long as you dont have a personal
  interest
• Not very, as long as it the issue is black and
  white
• Alright already! Its not so easy to tell right
  from wrong!

6
The Two Towers

• Rights Immanuel Kant
• Utility John Stuart Mill

7
Individual Rights

• Immanuel Kants Categorical Imperative, Act only
  on that maxim by which you can at the same time
  will that it should become a universal law."

8
Utility

• John Stuart Mills theory of utility, Actions
  are right in proportion as they tend to promote
  happiness wrong as they tend to produce the
  reverse of happiness.
• Or as Commander Spock would say, The needs of
  the many outweigh the needs of the few.

9
Into the Fray

• Sometimes, things that seem right at the moment
  arent right in the long run.
• Or, when is getting something for free not all
  its cracked up to be?

10
A moment whilst the hero searches his soul

• Isnt free always a good thing?
• Those of us who browsed the Internet were made
  happy.
• Only Netscape was unhappy.
• Happiness - Unhappiness gt 0?

11
Gaze into my orb!

• IBM cuts prices on entry level products whilst
  simultaneously boosting prices for upgrades and
  add-ons.
• Customers virtually unable to go elsewhere except
  at great additional cost.
• Monopolistic practices!

12
The apprentice learns

• The problem with utility is time.
• What is good right now, isnt always good.
• I changed my opinion.

13
Back In Hobbiton

• Retaining two ethical jewels
• Ready to act as a guide?

14
Becoming a Guide Teaching English 202

• Textbook is Mike Markels Technical Communication
• Chapter 2 introduces four moral standards
  rights, justice, utility, care
• Students write two memos analyzing two different
  ethical problems
• Individual memo
• Collaborative memo

15
Individual Ethical Memos

• Is it right or wrong
• for airports to use racial/ethnic profiling?
• to implant a GPS device into a child?
• to produce genetically altered food crops?
• to reintroduce endangered species into areas in
  which they are no longer indigenous?

16
Collaborative Ethics Memo

• Case 1964 and you work for Senator Waxwroth
• In 1945, employees of the federal government
  began experiments in which people injected with
  Pu.
• The people injected not told.
• Was this right or wrong?
• Use both Kant and Mill

17
Stage 1 In my opinion . . .

• Because thats the way I was raised
• Because thats why my parents taught me
• Because thats what the Bible, Bagavad Gita,
  Quran, etc. say
• Because I just think its wrong

18
Stage 2 Can I pick the theory I like best?

• Can I just use Rights?
• Can I just use Utility?
• Can I do this without having to think?

19
Stage 3 Enlightenment

• Using secular standards helps to avoid circular
  reasoning.
• Arguments based on religion assume truth of
  standard that is not be universal.
• Arguing from two perspectives can cause a person
  to change their mind!
• Or at least help us better understand the
  thinking behind some decisions.

20
Its not right now, but given the situation at
the time . . .

• We can understand why decisions were made to
  curtail individual rights.
• Even if we still dont agree.
• Time changes our perspective of right and wrong.

21
Utility over rights looking back

• Slavery
• Westward ho!
• Hiroshima/Nagasaki

22
Utility over rights looking ahead?

• Racial profiling?
• War against Iraq?
• Genetics?

23
What Ive learned

• We tend to be inconsistent in our ethics.
• We want to react rather than analyze.
• We are myopic.

24
What should we do?

• Think universally
• Question all pronouncements of right or wrong
• Think for ourselves

25
The end of the tale

• My experience in studying ethics for the first
  time.
• My experience in teaching ethics.
• What I have learned from it all.