A trial to systematize the practical ethics, based on the analysis of various problems of bioethics, environmental ethics and information ethics

本研究的第一个主题是阐明应用伦理学各个领域的共同特征，如生命伦理学、环境伦理学和信息伦理学，并明确传统伦理学与应用伦理学的关系。众所周知，在各个领域，伦理学都在努力寻找解决技术发展所带来的新问题的方法。在某些情况下，仍然可以通过使用诸如隐私、财产权和责任等传统概念来找到解决办法，但在有些情况下，似乎无法在传统道德的框架内找到解决办法。例如，在一些环境问题上，如酸雨、臭氧层破坏等，传统的责任概念就不能适用，因为我们无法确定谁造成了这些问题。在我们这个高度社会化的社会里，对于某些容易被复制或改造的现代作品的著作权保护，也存在着一些传统的基于刚性物的财产权的规则，而这些规则并不适用。我们讨论了新规则的条件，但结果并不令人满意。我们研究的第二个主题是开发应用伦理学的教育计划。目标几乎达到了，我们在电脑里安装了教学大纲和一些基本的试卷，学生们很容易就能拿到。我们还准备了幻灯片和录像带。

The first subject of our research is to elucidate the common characteristics of the various fields of applied ethics, such as bioethics, environmental ethics and information ethics, and to make clear the relation between traditional ethics and the applied ones. It is known that in each field ethics is trying to find a solution of the new problems which are caused by the development of technology. In some cases, the solution may still be found by using the traditional concepts such as privacy, property rights and responsibility, but there appears to be cases in which solutions can not be found within the framework of traditional ethics. For example, the traditional concepts of responsibility can not be applied in some environmental problems such as acid rain and the destruction of the ozone layr, as we can not identify who caused them. In our highly sophistcated society there are also some traditional rules based upon the property right of rigid things which are not applicable when we try to protect the copyrights of some kinds of modern works which are easily be copied or transformed. The conditions of new rules were discussed amongst us, although the result was not satisfactory in our ipinion.The second subject of our research is to develop an educational program of applied ethics. The goal was almost attained ; we installed sylabuses and some basic papers into the computer, which are easily accessible for the students. We also prepared slides and video cassettes.