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Ethics of Factory Pollution Debate

The document discusses the Turing Test and its implications for understanding minds and consciousness, highlighting the distinction between functionalism and linguistic understanding through John Searle's 'Chinese Room' thought experiment. It also presents an ethical dilemma involving a businessman who plans to build a factory that exploits local workers while causing environmental harm, prompting an analysis of moral standing through Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics. The document raises questions about the morality of the businessman's actions and the ethical frameworks that evaluate them.

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6 views6 pages

Ethics of Factory Pollution Debate

The document discusses the Turing Test and its implications for understanding minds and consciousness, highlighting the distinction between functionalism and linguistic understanding through John Searle's 'Chinese Room' thought experiment. It also presents an ethical dilemma involving a businessman who plans to build a factory that exploits local workers while causing environmental harm, prompting an analysis of moral standing through Utilitarianism and Kantian ethics. The document raises questions about the morality of the businessman's actions and the ethical frameworks that evaluate them.

Uploaded by

Super Calvo
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Week 10 Getty

GNED: SCIENCE FICTION AND PHILOSOPHY


PROF: MIKE EVANS
([Link]@[Link])
Inverted Spectra
The Turing Test

The Turing Test relies on


Testees functionalism, which says
that if something
functions as a mind does
then it is a mind

Tester (Judge)

Juan Alberto Sánchez Margallo


The Expanded Turing Test
• Tests additional (or even all) aspects of mindedness in addition to linguistic
understanding

The Teaching Company


The “Chinese Room”
Thought Experiment
John Searle: This shows that it is possible
for something to pass the Turing Test/pass
the expanded Turing Test but clearly not
have any linguistic understanding/be
minded in any way

Wikimedia Commons

Paramount
Ethics review
A very wealthy businessman has an opportunity to build a new factory on a river in
an isolated area of the country. The people who live in the village downstream from
the factory are desperate for work because their last employer abruptly moved away
a few months ago. The businessman realizes he can hire people in the village to
work in his factory for low wages – barely enough for them to survive, and
significantly less than they made working for their previous employer – allowing him
and his partners to become even richer. At the same time, the factory will pollute
the river, which is predicted to significantly shorten the lives of his workers and their
families, as well as the deer that drink from the river. The businessman weighs his
options and decides to go forward with this plan.
1. Who has moral standing here, according to a) Utilitarianism
and b) the Principle of Humanity (Kantian ethics)?
2. What would each of these theories say about the
morality of his actions, and why?

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