Ethics in the Profession

Ethics help people think about what is right and wrong. They stand in contrast to laws and morals that a society uses to define what is right and wrong for them at a particular point in time. For example, Victorians thought women should not be able to vote or display their ankles; for them, these were moral issues. Ethics are concerned with the underlying principles that generate these laws and morals. This section presents basic ethical philosophies, outlines the GIS Certification Institute Code of Ethics, and describes how ethics affects the practice of geographic information (GI) professionals.

Philosophers have fallen into three camps as they struggle to identify the best principles for ethics:

• Teleological ethics: Focus on outcomes and consequences. One example of this is utilitarianism, whereby decisions are made to maximize the common good.
• Deontological ethics: Focus on rules and logical consistency. “The Ten Commandments” provide a good example.
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• Aretaic ethics: Focus on virtuous character. Those who extol this philosophy might endorse family values or religion as ways to cultivate good character.

Each philosophy has potential shortcomings. For example, strict adherence to teleological ethics could severely hurt minority groups in the name of maximizing the common good. Strict adherence to deontological ethics would mean that all rules are inviolate, regardless of consequences. Many of the world's troubles, past and present, can be traced to strict interpretation of religious values.

It is possible to combine the best of these three philosophies by making (deontological) rules that focus on ensuring the kind of good (teleological) outcomes that we would expect from (aretaic) virtuous people. Such rules would require us to treat others with respect and never merely as the means to an end. They would require us to consider the impact of our actions on other persons and to modify our actions to reflect the respect and concern we have for them. Such rules are embraced by all of the world's major religions.