ABSTRACT
We provide a brief but clear overview of major ethical theories to familiarize the reader with the rich and varied viewpoints from which problems, dilemmas, decisions, and actions in digital ethics may be understood and engaged. Included are useful distinctions between theoretical (normative) ethics, applied ethics, and meta-ethics. Understanding ethics both theoretically and for application affects one’s reasoning about the content of moral problems in general, and, for this book, on digital ethics in particular. As the autonomous vehicle case study from the last chapter illustrated, making right or good decisions is often difficult, especially in complex conditions and circumstances. The ubiquity of and the uses to which digital products are put create many conditions of serious moral import.
