Ethics in Social Networking and Business 2

7Uses of Ethics: Between Virtue, Humanism and Illiteracy

7.1. Ethics: an attitude between responsibility and conviction

7.1.1. A reminder: evolution and the role of antagonisms

We cannot speak of ethics by ignoring the notions of evolution. In nature, and this has often been recalled [MAS 06], evolution is an irreversible phenomenon. As for the analysis of complex systems control and monitoring, we cannot approach the problem of ethics without considering antagonisms. If we refer to the works of Weber, Hottois or Autès, we see that the notion of ethics is of two types: the ethics of conviction and the ethics of responsibility [WEY 72].

Knowing that these concepts are commonly accepted, we will describe them quickly and highlight some of their characteristics in the light of current economic, political and social considerations.

7.1.2. Notions of responsibility and conviction in ethics

The concept of antagonisms (or ambivalence) leads us to introduce a new approach to ethics by distinguishing ethics from responsibility and ethics from conviction: this distinction concerns questions of politics and strategies, scientific rationality, then economic, human and social considerations, within the modern world.

7.1.2.1. Ethics of responsibility

This type of ethics belongs to teleological rationality: it is rational with regard to a perfect and fitting goal in relation to an extrinsic aim pursued by the one who acts and which he has, if not posited himself, at least clearly recognized ...