The Ethics Industries

Bryan Glastonbury and Walter Lamendola
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Bryan Glastonbury: University of Southampton
Walter Lamendola: Colorado Trust

Chapter 11 in The Integrity of Intelligence, 1992, pp 163-186 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Summary In this chapter we examine more closely the types of societal and cultural responses that may assert intellectual integrity with regard to information technologies, starting from the view of Fromm (1968) that intellectual integrity is supported by what he calls a “humanistic technology”. A humanistic technology is one that meets human needs because we take action in technology development and applications to evaluate, alter and monitor its impact. Simultaneously communities give their support to the formation of those social institutions which will ensure the efficacy and effectiveness of the humanistic input. We make use in this chapter of Masuda’s (1981) work on “ethic industries” in the context of a humanistic technology. What are the ethics industries? What set of vocations and organizations can act as ethical agents? Where are they found? Why are they important to the transition to an information society? We discuss their importance to individualism, decentralisation, democracy, and empowerment, and look at some examples of activities which have subjected IT applications to human valuation and meaningful adaptation to the needs of everyday life. At the saine time we challenge the pessimism of Ellul’s (1964, 1990) warning that technological determinism will swamp human morality, because all the significant pressures in society are pushing in that direction.

Keywords: Ethic Business; Information Society; Voluntary Organization; Ethical Framework; Ethical Matter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1992
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-22734-1_11

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-22734-1_11

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