On Ethics in Web Development (With a Brief Overview of Ethical Theories)

Published on March 6, 2025, filed under Development and Philosophy (RSS feed for all categories).

Ethics, the philosophical science of morality and moral acting, matters in technology, in information technology, in software and in web development. It does so not just because of potential misuse of AI, or perceived reckless conduct by tech millionaires. It does so because being used by actors, technology enables and influences (im)moral acting.

However, in our field, not everyone may be aware of the various schools of thought in ethics. When we look at ethics-related coverage, it may be called out that the matter is about something ethical or moral, but the underlying school or schools of thought are rarely explained.

Being clear about these schools is relevant, interesting, and useful, which I think can be shown by reviewing some of them, and outlining how this understanding can be used.

A Quick Overview of Ethical Theories

During my time at the University of Hamburg, Prof. Dr. Eike Bohlken taught the following main theories (classified as teleological and/or deontological):

• Virtue ethics focuses on virtue and character as the primary subjects of ethics.

• Hedonistic ethics emphasizes the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain as the highest moral principles of human behavior.

• Utilitarianism advocates for actions that maximize happiness and well-being for the affected individuals, and encourages actions that “lead to the greatest good for the greatest number” of people.

• Kantian ethics stresses that “one ought never to act except in such a way that one could also will that one’s maxim should become a universal law,” and that “it is impossible to think of anything at all in the world, or indeed even beyond it, that could be considered good without limitation except a good will.”

• Discourse ethics asserts that a universal moral norm only holds if all (rational) participants in a discourse would approve.

• Contractualism believes that moral conduct is based on a social contract, that “actual or hypothetical consent to this contract is the source of moral norms and duties.”

• Material ethics of values suggests that ethics is based on values that are experienced phenomenologically.

• Ethics of responsibility focuses on taking responsibility for the consequences of one’s actions, on a “moral obligation to consider the well-being and interests of future generations when making decisions or taking actions in the present.”

This overview is brief and scrappy, but the Wikipedia article on ethics covers many of the ideas and is a useful read. If you want to go both deeper and broader, review ethics in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

What This Means and How It Can Be Used

What can you do with this?

First, you can use this information to be or get clear about your school(s) of thought. Personally, while I can appreciate aspects of many of these ideas, I’m largely in the ethics of responsibility camp.

Then, you can better comprehend texts about ethics, by identifying the underlying theories or asking their authors to explain them. (Calling out this option is the main purpose of this article.)

And, you can better challenge as well as reconcile others’ and your own schools of thought. For me, for example, valuing responsibility, utilitarian ideas don’t always fly so well—but understanding the different schools helps me recognize, work with, and synthesize them.

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If you want to try it out, check aforementioned ethics-related articles and videos from our field, to tell whether the authors are clear about their ethical standpoints, how you relate to these, and what that allows you to take away.

Although this is a sketch, I hope it helps make clearer how ethics is important, also in web development, but that it’s not “just” ethics—and that nuance is relevant, interesting, and useful.

About Me

I’m Jens (long: Jens Oliver Meiert), and I’m a web developer, manager, and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead and engineering manager for small and large enterprises, I’m an occasional contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and I write and review books for O’Reilly and Frontend Dogma.

I love trying things, not only in web development and engineering management, but also in other areas like philosophy. Here on meiert.com I share some of my experiences and views. (I value you being critical, interpreting charitably, and giving feedback.)