By studying Ethical Reasoning, we can think critically about right and wrong human conduct, assess our own ethical values, recognize ethical issues across a variety of contexts, think about how different ethical values and perspectives might be applied to ethical dilemmas, and consider the ethically relevant ramifications of alternative actions or policies.

Perspectives

Developed in 2022 by the research laboratory OpenAI, Chat Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (or ChatGPT) is an artificial intelligence chatbot, which is software that mimics human conversation. After you submit a question or prompt, it will develop a response that is based upon “training its AI with an extraordinarily large amount of data, much of which comes from the vast supply of data on the internet,” and it has so far been able to, at someone’s direction, “make jokes, write TV episodes, compose music, and even debug computer code” (Heilweil, 2022). And when given parameters, it produces (rather mediocre) writing on the subject requested.

There are already ethical concerns being debated about ChatGPT. The Future of Life Institute (2023) has called for “all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4,” citing that these concerns need to be addressed:

• Should we let machines flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth?
• Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones?
• Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace us?
• Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?

These are huge questions, ones that have ethical considerations for all of us. Further than these concerns, Cindy Gordon (2023) tells us there is evidence of ChatGPT “producing toxic content, surfacing up biases on women, and in particular women of color” learned from the web content it has been fed. While it seems to have certain limits built in (i.e. Hitler is bad), most limits seem easily overridden.

Universities too are grappling with ChatGPT as it is possible for students to complete assignments through the AI. In a 2023 BestColleges survey of undergraduate and graduate students, “half of students (51%) agree that using AI tools to complete assignments and exams counts as cheating or plagiarism” while 48% believe it is possible to use AI in an ethical and responsible way in coursework and 40% believe that the use of AI by students defeats the purpose of education. Faculty and students alike share these concerns. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student Sierra President writes, “With the creation of new AI platforms that assist in gaining and distributing information, the ethical dilemmas of using sites like ChatGPT have become pertinent, making students like me wonder if we should even be using these platforms to begin with” (2023). Is it ethical for a student to use ChatGPT for even a portion of an assignment and represent the work as their own? Are there some circumstances in which it would be ethical and others in which it is not?

Concepts to Consider

It is mind-boggling how many ethical decisions we make a day. These begin with relatively simple scenarios. Do I cross the road on a do not walk sign when there are no cars coming? Do I turn in the $20 bill I found in the parking lot? Some scenarios are far more complicated, requiring deliberate thought and care in order to make a decision. Should I report an incident of sexual violence even though my friend has told me not to do so? Should I intervene when I witness an act of microaggression or bullying (see Byers and Cerulli, 2021, on the use of Ethical Reasoning in cyberbullying situations in college)? These questions are complex with a number of variables to consider.

The study of Ethical Reasoning builds peoples’ “abilities to evaluate their own values and beliefs, think critically about ethical issues, and apply an ethical reasoning process to generate sound decisions” (Horner, 2021, p.130). Ethical Reasoning is not a matter of whether someone is innately “good” or not. It is, rather, as Allison Ames, et.al. (2017, p. 78), assert, “a teachable skill that college students can (and should) learn.” It requires learning “the skills to make ethical decisions” (Horner, 2021, p. 124), both the development of strategies to apply in situations and reflections upon past behaviors or projected decisions: “Reflecting on one’s intuitive ethical decision-making, particularly alongside ethical frameworks, can build ethical reasoning skills” (Corple, et. al., 2020, p. 276). By practicing Ethical Reasoning, we can meet ethical dilemmas as they arise with a firm yet flexible sense of our own values and the ability to see alternatives and select one deliberately.

Most careers also have what are called professional ethics, which are the collective principles by which members of certain professions are expected to abide. Quite often, these are written by organizations that govern accreditation or licenses to practice. Ethical Reasoning skills can help with understanding codes of ethics and making decisions in situations in which perhaps individual ethics are in conflict with professional codes. Given these complexities, which can be different for each profession (see, for example, “Common Examples of Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing”), employers prize Ethical Reasoning skills in employees: “Publicly played out ethical quandaries, both recent and historical, make it easy to determine why researchers claim ethical reasoning as vital in an individuals’ professional and civic lives” (Ames, et. al., 2017, p. 78). And, indeed, many employers want their future employees to have more Ethical Reasoning training in college in their majors and general education (Horner, 2021, p. 124).

Ethical Reasoning and Good, Necessary Trouble

Protest has been a part of the American national experience since before the Revolutionary War, including famous protests like the Boston Tea Party, those against the Stamp Act, and one of the ones that turned most violent, the Boston Massacre – all events which influenced the First Amendment, which guarantees citizens the rights of assembly, speech, and petition. One of the most influential series of protests in our history came with the Civil Rights Movement, protests John Lewis specifically thought of as “good, necessary trouble.” Daniel Q. Gillion, in his book The Loud Minority: Why Protests Matter in American Democracy (2020, p. 188), estimates that by 2018 “one out of ten individuals [had] participated in some form of protest” in the United States. This number has likely increased since then.

In what they call a “surge to new levels,” the Armed Conflict Location an Event Data Project (ACLED) reports that from May 24 to August 2020, there were more than 10,600 demonstration events in the United States, with over 80% connected to Black Lives Matter (BLM) or COVID-19 (“Demonstrations and Political Violence in America: New Data for Summer 2020”). In ACLED’s report “A Year of Racial Justice Protests: Key Trends in Demonstrations Supporting the BLM Movement” with data covering January 2020 through April 2021, they found there were more than 11,000 Black Lives Matter demonstrations in around 3000 locations in the United States. Noting that numbers increase and decrease depending on waves of infection rates and new laws and mandates concerning social distancing, masking, and vaccination, ACLED in “A National Emergency: How COVID-19 Is Fueling Unrest in the United States” reported more than “25,000 political violence, demonstration, and strategic development events” related to COVID-19, both calling for protections of various communities as well as anti-restriction protests (against ​​mandatory mask mandates, vaccinations, stay-at-home orders, online schooling, etc.), as of February 21, 2021. University researchers Erica Chenoweth and Jeremy Pressman estimate that, in the Women’s March of 2017, at least 4.2 million people participated in over 600 cities in the United States. It was what Chenoweth calls “the single largest day for a demonstration in the US” (Frostenson, 2017). These are only some of the statistics from the United States. The Global Peace Index of 2022 notes that the “number of protest movements and demonstrations has increased sharply across the world, particularly in recent years.” They have attributed much of this increase to the unrest and uncertainty of the pandemic.

The Global Peace Index 2022 notes worldwide protests have mostly been peaceful, although “instances of events incorporating violence – either perpetrated by demonstrators or by the security forces – are becoming more frequent […with] the worst deterioration, changing by 49.6 per cent since 2008.” ACLED reports that “94% of all pro-BLM demonstrations have been non-violent, with 6% involving reports of violence, clashes with police, vandalism, looting, or other destructive activity” (“A Year of Racial Justice Protests,” 2021). They note, similar to the Global Peace Index, that it is not always easy to name the instigators of such activity: “some cases of violence or looting have been provoked by demonstrators, other events escalated as a result of aggressive police action, intervention from right-wing armed groups, and individual car-ramming attacks.” Even with such a predominance of non-violent BLM events and even an increase in peaceful protests since George Floyd’s death, “41% of Americans remain opposed to the movement,” which ACLED mostly attributes to disinformation campaigns against BLM (see Information Literacy in chapter 4.1). Gillion (p. 133) tells us that “the interactions of Black Lives Matter activists with the general electorate shows that the response of protest activity is not only an objective process of information dissemination but indeed an emotional one that changes individual attitudes and remains with individuals long after the activism has subsided.” He uses the protest by NFL players, led by Colin Kaepernick, in which they took a knee during the national anthem to protest against police killings of Black people, to illustrate the point that “the backlash seen by the public is not directed toward the substantive message of the protest but rather the very act of individuals protesting […] The pushback […] was focused on the actions of NFL players during the national anthem, labeling them disrespectful” (p. 137). Should people protest? And who has the right to protest?

Even during the Revolutionary War, people debated about what type of protest was necessary and who should be allowed to protest (see the Museum of the American Revolution Protest in Early America Discovery Cart). Gillion comments, “political protest is a form of communication that individuals can rely on to express the grievances of a community and push for change against the status quo. For some observers, this message will be embraced; it will inspire passionate support and even motivate actions. Others see the protest actions as an offense to their sensibilities that should be rooted out” (p. 133). How a person reacts to protests depends largely on an individual’s beliefs about or how much they are affected by the issue(s) at hand.

Personal ethics play a considerable role in the decision to participate in a protest. In “Is It Ethical to Protest?”, Jennifer Baker (2020), a professor of philosophy at the College of Charleston, lays out some of the issues we might think about before joining a protest:

• personal safety and that of others
• concerns of whether we are in the “right”
• the fear of being perceived as “moral grandstanding”
• possible effects on social standing and careers
• concerns about the effectiveness of protest, especially the contributions of an individual
• concerns about the acts of others outside of our control, especially illegal actions

While personal ethics are involved in these decisions, various community beliefs can also have an influence – for instance, a person’s religion and their religious leaders. In a message from the president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, titled “The Ethics of Protesting,” Joseph Meaney (2023) extols the virtues of peaceful protest: “Peaceful protesting is a valid and even meritorious way to make one’s concerns and beliefs known to the wider public in a free society. In fact, we have an ethical duty to not simply allow injustices to continue.” But Meaney sets parameters based on what he claims is Judeo-Christian ethical tradition in that he states it is “ethically intolerable to allow violent protests or vandalism to go unchecked.” The definitions of “violence” and “vandalism,” however, are also a debate, and, like anything else, the question is: do these rules apply in every situation or are there exceptions and what are they?  These are all ethical considerations to reason through.

Discussion 5.3

• If you have already taken a course with a primary focus on Ethical Reasoning, think about what you were asked to do and what you learned. If you have not already taken an Ethical Reasoning course, think about the types of courses you could take.
• In what ways did or might the idea(s) or example(s) discussed above apply in such a course?
• What other ideas or examples would you add to the discussion?