Document Type : .

Author

• Mahmoud Mokhtari

SBU/Faculty

Abstract

The issue of this article is whether it is possible to regulate users' behavior without referring to ethics, and solely based on the architecture of virtual space? In this regard, three approaches are examined: 1- Adequacy of cyberspace architecture without the need for ethics 2- Compliance of the code with the principles of ethics 3- Necessity of hard ethics (before cyberspace architecture) and soft ethics (after architecture). In this context, the views of Lawrence Lessig (first approach), Richard Spinello (second approach) and Luciano Floridi (third approach) are discussed. In order to evaluate the aforementioned approaches, two criteria of "theoretical acceptability" (the requirement that the preferred view must be defensible based on the moral theories) and "technological acceptability" (the requirement that preferred view must be executable from the engineering point of view). Therefore a combinatory view is defended, which is operationally based on the architecture (code) of cyberspace, but from the theoretical aspect, it also depends on Ethical principles (hard ethics) and rely on case-by-case ethical judgments of experts (soft ethics).

Keywords

• Cyberspace Architecture
• Digital Ethics
• Lessig
• Spinello
• Floridi