The Importance Of Teleological Ethics

Targeting decisions are subjective in nature. Decisions such as the proportionate use of force require the deliberative reasoning of an experienced commander who must balance civilian lives and property against direct military advantage. Computers and humans are better at different tasks. While computers may be better and more efficient at responding quickly to and carrying out multiple complex tasks, humans are better at exercising meaningful judgment and deliverative reasoning. The key is finding the balance between the computer and human interface as it relates to decision-making. The goal is to get the correct balance, which could lead to more precise targeting, resulting in less collateral damage. If we get it wrong, it could have disastrous

It is a result, objective, and outcome based ethic. The name is derived from the Greek word telos or end and it is sometimes referred to as consequentialism ethics because it looks to the consequences of an action to determine its goodness. The right action is the one that produces the most good because of its consequences. Teleological derives what is good or ethical as an end that is achieved. In other words, teleological ethics bases the morality of the action on the value that it brings in to being. It looks for moral goodness in the consequences of our action and not the action itself. For example, on August 6, 1945 President Truman dropped the first of two atomic bombs on Japan killing 150K thousand Japanese, but saving an estimated 1M casualties if the U.S. would have invaded. A teleological ethic would have looked at the goodness in saving 850K lives versus the 150K killed and conclude that President Truman made an ethical decision. Similarly, a teleological analysis of autonomous weapons would conclude they are ethical if the United States objective for employing the autonomous robots is to reduce the number of American casualties killed in battle. If using autonomous robots kills fewer Americans, then the ethical analysis, using a teleological lens, would conclude that the use of autonomous robots could be ethical. We must be careful to look to other ethical lens as well; teleology

Deontological comes from the Greek word deon or duty. Deontological ethics looks to a set of moral standards to determine good, right, regardless of the good, or evil generated from the action. In deontological ethics actions are evaluated in and of themselves and not the ends they produce. For example, on May 31, 2014 the U.S. traded five prisoners for the release of SGT Bowe Bergdahl after almost five years as a prisioner. A deontological ethic would conclude that the action was ethical, not based on what SGT Bergdahl did or the consequences of his actions, but on the fact that the Soldier’s Creed states the U.S. will never leaves a comrade behind. Likewise, a deontological analysis of AWS would consider them ethical if they are able to abide by the rules of IHL regardless of the outcome or