Global ethics for the digital age – flourishing ethics
Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society
ISSN: 1477-996X
Article publication date: 10 June 2021
Issue publication date: 16 September 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore an emerging ethical theory for the Digital Age – Flourishing Ethics – which will likely be applicable in many different cultures worldwide, addressing not only human concerns but also activities, decisions and consequences of robots, cyborgs, artificially intelligent agents and other new digital technologies.
Design/methodology/approach
In the past, a number of influential ethical theories in Western philosophy have focused upon choice and autonomy, or pleasure and pain or fairness and justice. These are important ethical concepts, but we consider “flourishing” to be a broader “umbrella concept” under which all of the above ideas can be included, plus additional ethical ideas from cultures in other regions of the world (for example, Buddhist, Muslim, Confucianist cultures and others). Before explaining the applied approach, this study discusses relevant ideas of four example thinkers who emphasize flourishing in their ethics writings: Aristotle, Norbert Wiener, James Moor and Simon Rogerson.
Findings
Flourishing Ethics is not a single ethical theory. It is “an approach,” a “family” of similar ethical theories which can be successfully applied to humans in many different cultures, as well as to non-human agents arising from new digital technologies.
Originality/value
This appears to be the first extended analysis of the emerging flourishing ethics “family” of theories.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to TÜBITAK – The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey for their financial support of this research project. The authors are also grateful for many services and resources provided by Southern Connecticut State University, including its Philosophy Department and The Research Center on Values in Emerging Science and Technology (RC-VEST). Finally, the authors express their gratitude to the Editor and two anonymous reviewers of the Journal of Information and Communication Ethics in Society for their helpful suggestions.
Citation
Kantar, N. and Bynum, T.W. (2021), "Global ethics for the digital age – flourishing ethics", Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 329-344. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-01-2021-0016
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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