Case Study: Consequentialism and Deontology

CSCI 104: Data Science and Computing for All

Williams College�Fall 2025

• Prelab 9
• Work on in lab today/tomorrow
• Due Wednesday by 10am�
• Project Meetings signups!
• See calendar button or Glow announcement
• Each group should sign up for one meeting in each week after Thanksgiving.�
• Midterm Review Wednesday 7-8 in Bronfman

Announcements

• Understand Consequentialism vs Deontology
• Apply those frameworks to scenarios involving the use of data

Learning Objectives

Why are we talking about this now?

• In this class, you have the tools to download data from anywhere, load it into a notebook, and analyze it

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• Big question: Should you use any data you find lying around on the internet?

Ground rules for ethical discussions

• Maintain confidentiality
• Listen with the intent to learn
• Suspend judgment
• Experience discomfort
• Step up, step back
• Expect and accept non-closure

Adapted from ACL 2020 tutorial

Two ethical frameworks

• Consequentialism: focus on the ends
• Deontology: focus on the means

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A few things to keep in mind:

• Both of these frameworks can be taken to the extremes
• Many disagreements are between people who align with different frameworks
• Ethical pathways forward typically blend the two

Consequentialism

Jeremy

Bentham

John Stuart �Mill

Balance sheet

Deontology

Immanuel Kant

Focus on ethical duties (rules) independent of their consequences

Example: Informed consent

Consequentialism

It helps to prevent harm to participants by prohibiting research that does not properly balance risk and anticipated benefit. ��In other words, consequentialist thinking would support informed consent because it helps prevent bad outcomes for participants.

Deontology

A researcher has a duty to respect the autonomy of their participants.

A pure consequentialist might be willing to waive the requirement for informed consent in a setting where there was no risk, whereas a pure deontologist might not.

Source: Bit-by-bit

Frameworks taken to the extremes

Consequentialism to the extreme

• Consequentialist doctor kills one patient and harvests organs
• Does this in order to prolong the lives of four other patients�

Deontology to the extreme

• Police officer captures terrorist who knows the location of a bomb that will kill millions.
• Deontologist police officer does not lie in order to trick terrorist into revealing bomb’s location.

Ethical reasoning must generally try to balance both perspectives

In which situations in your life have you acted

• as a Consequentialist?
• as a Deontologist?

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Do you notice yourself preferring one framework over the other? Why?

💡Think-Pair-Share

Patreon case study outline

1. Individually: Read case study. Questions?
2. Small groups: Discuss reasons to use or not use the data
3. Whole class:
1. List reasons on board
2. Add other reasons not brainstormed
3. Identify which are consequentialist �or deontologist
4. Follow-up questions

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Where else do you see similar ethical �questions surrounding data use?

• Understand Consequentialism vs Deontology
• Apply those frameworks to scenarios involving the use of data

Learning Objectives