Understanding Digital Ethics: Cases and Contexts

Rapid changes in technology and the growing use of electronic media signal a need for understanding both clear and subtle ethical and social implications of the digital, and of specific digital technologies. Understanding Digital Ethics: Cases and Contexts is the first book to offer a philosophically grounded examination of digital ethics and its moral implications. Divided into three clear parts, the authors discuss and explain the following key topics:

Becoming literate in digital ethics

Moral viewpoints in digital contexts

Motivating action in digital ethics

Speed and scope of digital information

Moral algorithms and ethical machines

The digital and the human

Digital relations and empathy machines

Agents, autonomy, and action

Digital and ethical activism.

The book includes cases and examples that explore the ethical implications of digital hardware and software including videogames, social media platforms, autonomous vehicles, robots, voice-enabled personal assistants, smartphones, artificially intelligent chatbots, military drones, and more.

Understanding Digital Ethics is essential reading for students and scholars of philosophical ethics, those working on topics related to digital technology and digital/moral literacy, and practitioners in related fields.