Ethicking - Dealing with Ethics : Can Micro World Simulations Stimulate Ethical Competence

Ethical competence is becoming increasingly important in a world that is progressing faster for every day. Every day technological progress raises new questions and considerations with ethical implications; medical breakthroughs, globalization, automation, imminent environmental breakdown and war against terrorism are all examples of matters that come along with this type of considerations. In this thesis a theoretical framework for acquiring ethical competence is suggested, leaning mainly on the work of Piaget and Kohlberg. This framework attempts to show that autonomy is a necessary attitude to achieve true ethical competence. Based on this framework, a prototype of a freely configurable micro world simulator has been developed, a simulator that is intended for both training and measuring ethical competence. In order to trigger and stimulate this ability, the user is urged to play the role of law and legislate in order to solve the conflicts with ethical implications that arise in the micro world. The measuring of ethical competence is done by identifying and quantifying the symptoms of autonomy as they have been suggested in the framework