Ethical? app for iPhone and iPad

There is a need for a simple tool that can help instill the logic of ethical behavior into modern society. This App is a simple bare bones tool that will allow one to evaluate whether or not a behavior is ethical. It is not a flashy entertainment App. It is not designed to entertain. It is designed to educate and give guidance. It is designed to allow the quick evaluation of an action to determine if the action fits within general ethical guidelines. It will allow an individual to rethink behavior if it is unethical.

Ethical and unethical behavior can be evaluated by considering the impact of behavior on the Common Good, the Rights of others, the Utilitarian impact of the behavior and the relationship of truth to Fairness and Justice. I distilled these areas down into four simple questions for any behavior under consideration.

The first question addresses the common good. The ethicist John Rawls has defined the common good as “certain general conditions that are … equally to everyone’s advantage.” The common good insures that the social systems and institutions, upon which we depend, must operate in a manner that benefits all people. The common good does not just happen. It must be attained through the cooperative effort of citizens.

The second question addresses the rights of individuals. A right is a justified claim on others. The justification of a claim is dependent on some standard acknowledged and accepted not just by the claimant, but also society in general. Citizens have a right to expect that others shall function in a manner that will respect their acknowledged rights. The social costs of ignoring these rights can surely result in damage to citizens, but also can result in damage to the institutions honored with preserving these rights.

The third question addresses the utilitarian approach to ethical behavior. This approach answers the question of what option will produce the most good and do the least harm. Utilitarianism is a moral principle that holds that the morally right course of action, in any situation, is the one that produces the greatest balance of benefits over harms for everyone affected.

The final question addresses the need for truth as the basis of fairness and justice. No idea in western civilization has been more consistently linked to ethics and morality than the idea of justice. Justice means giving each individual what he or she deserves or, in more traditional terms, giving each person his or her due. Fairness refers to the ability to make judgments that are not overly general but are concrete and specific to a particular case. Justice and fairness are closely related terms that are often today used interchangeably. While justice usually has been used to reference a standard of rightness, fairness often has been used with regard to an ability to judge without reference to one’s feelings or interests. Judgments cannot be fair and just without truth being exchanged.

To use the App, answer the first question and proceed by tapping the next question button and then answering the question presented. After truthfully answering the four questions, the App will tell you whether or not the answers resulted in ethical or unethical behavior. The App may be repeated by tapping the next question button again. If a question is not answered, the App will allow you to repeat the evaluation.