Computer and Applied Ethics

With this essay I treat some problems raised by the new developments in science and technology, that is, those about Computer Ethics to show how and how far Applied Ethics differs from traditional ethics. I take up backgrounds on which Computer Ethics rests, particularly historical conditions of morality. Differences of conditions in time and space explain how Computer Ethics and Applied Ethics are not any traditional ethics <applied > in concrete cases. But I also investigate the normative reasoning in Computer Ethics and show how the features of that reasoning relate to our moral freedom. They seem, to me, to influence the <conservative> character of Computer Ethics