FEMINIST ETHICS AND DIGITAL MEDIA

In my view, one of the most important contributions of feminist ethics and an ethics of care is not only that they require us to acknowledge the significance of emotions, including feelings of care, but also that they help us learn to think beyond more dualistic, either/or approaches that have been emphasized in modern Western reflection and teaching about ethics. An especially prominent example here is just the notion of the self as a relational autonomy – that is, a sense of self that overcomes the apparent polarity between individuality and relationality by conjoining elements of both. By moving toward a “both/and” logic (or logic of complementarity), in particular, we are sometimes able to see a third alternative or possibility (or more) – overlooked by more dualistic ways of thinking – that thereby may help us resolve what otherwise seem to be intractable dilemmas of the sort faced by Heinz.

These (for the modern West, new) ways of thinking, moreover, are valuable not only as they help sustain a much needed environmental ethics but, further, as such relational thinking may closely resonate with: (i) contemporary non-Western ethical frameworks (explored more fully below); and (ii) especially the networked or distributed character of ICTs and other digital media linked together through the internet and the Web.

(A) Given what you are able to understand about these two different logics – a logic of dualism as based on the exclusive either/or and a logic of complementarity or “both/and” – as you observe the larger culture around you, which of these two logics appears to be at work more predominantly than the other? Be sure to provide an example or two to help illustrate your point.

(B) Identify a central issue in digital media ethics that you have already analyzed and responded to with some care in the course of your working through this volume. Review your response: do you seem to rely on one of these logics more than the other in your analyses and resolution(s) of this issue? Be sure to explain carefully how the logic you identify is apparent in your analysis/resolution.

(C) After reviewing your analyses and resolution(s), insofar as they seem to rest on using one logic more than another, would they be any different in any significant ways if you were to attempt to make them using the other logic instead? If so, how? Be sure to explain carefully how this is so.