Fundamental Ethical Principle
Class
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#FundamentalEthicalPrinciple
Class Hierarchy
- Thing
- ↳ entity (bfo)
- ↳ continuant (bfo)
- ↳ generically dependent continuant (bfo)
- ↳ information content entity (iao)
- ↳ directive information entity (iao)
- ↳ Principle (proethica-core)
- ↳ Fundamental Ethical Principle
- ↳ Client Override Refusal Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Code Adaptability Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Evolving Standards Responsiveness Principle
- ↳ Expertise-Calibrated Disclosure Principle
- ↳ Post-Formal-Presentation Persistence Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Proactive Risk Disclosure Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Professional Dignity Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Public Safety Paramount (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Public Welfare Paramountcy Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Public Welfare Principle
- ↳ Technical Objectivity Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
- ↳ Technology Substitution Prohibition Principle (proethica-intermediate-extended)
Definition
A universal moral foundation that serves as the highest-level abstraction in professional ethics, requiring extensive interpretation through concrete cases (BFO: generically dependent continuant)
Examples: Public Welfare Paramount, Respect for Persons, Justice, Beneficence. These require extensive interpretation and balancing in specific contexts.
Definition source
- McLaren (2003). Extensionally defining principles and cases in ethics: An AI model. Artificial Intelligence 150(1-2): 145-181.
- Morley et al. (2021). Ethics as a Service: A Pragmatic Operationalisation of AI Ethics. Minds and Machines 31(2): 239-256 (doi:10.1007/s11023-021-09563-w).
- Taddeo et al. (2024). From AI Ethics Principles to Practices: A Teleological Methodology to Apply AI Ethics Principles in the Defence Domain. Philosophy & Technology 37(1): 42 (doi:10.1007/s13347-024-00710-6).
- Hallamaa and Kalliokoski (2022). AI Ethics as Applied Ethics. Frontiers in Computer Science 4: 776837 (doi:10.3389/fcomp.2022.776837).
Mappings & provenance
source
source
source
Property Structure
1 · Object and Data Properties
rdfs:domain on this class or ancestor
| Property | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
| establishedBy inherited | CodeProvision | Indicates which code provision establishes this ethical concept. |
| invokedBy inherited | Agent | Relates a Principle to the Agent(s) that invoke it in the case scenario (the parties who appeal to the principle to justify or evaluate conduct). May name several agents. |
2 · Definitional Attributes
SHACL definitional shape
| Attribute | Property (sh:path) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| principle kind | principleCategory | The controlled principle kind, which drives the four-kind subClassOf typing: FundamentalEthicalPrinciple, ProfessionalVirtuePrinciple, RelationalPrinciple, DomainSpecificPrinciple. The canonical leaf label becomes the rdf:type; the category is a routing input, not stored as a literal. |
| extensional cases | extensionalCases | Class-level prior cases that instantiate the principle (McLaren extensional grounding); an optional class-mint field. |
3 · Bearer Attributes
SHACL property shape
individual data
| Attribute | Property (sh:path) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| interpretation | interpretation | Per-case reading of what the principle requires in this situation (a defeasibility-pipeline source field). |
| concrete expression | concreteExpression | How the principle is concretely expressed in the case (a defeasibility-pipeline source field). |
| applied to | appliedTo | What the principle is applied to in the case (the situation or party it bears on). |
| balancing with | balancingWith | The competing principle or value this principle is balanced against in the case, recorded as a literal; extraction records the tension but asserts no defeat or precedence, and the defeasibility edges are materialized by a separate pass from this field. |
| tension resolution | tensionResolution | How the case resolves the tension involving this principle (a defeasibility-pipeline source field). |
| invoked by | invokedBy | The agent who invokes the principle, via the P->Agent invokedBy edge (resolved to a case Agent by embedding shortlist + LLM select; a Board-pattern invoking party resolves deterministically to the case-scoped NSPE Board of Ethical Review Agent). Range: Agent. |
4 · Referenced By
rdfs:range on this class or ancestor
| From | Property | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Action | guidedByPrinciple inherited | Relates an action to a principle that directs it. The principle supplies the value the action is taken to serve. |
| Code Provision | establishes inherited | Relates a code provision to the ethical concepts (principles, obligations, constraints) it establishes or defines. |
| Obligation | derivedFromPrinciple inherited | Relates an obligation to the principle or principles it operationalizes. The obligation gives concrete directive force to the more abstract value the principle expresses (Dennis et al. 2016). |
| Role | adheresToPrinciple inherited | Relates a role to principles that guide its conduct; the role-relative applicability edge of the R->P->O chain (the role determines which principles apply to conduct in that standing). |
Subclasses 3
Evolving Standards Responsiveness Principle
The value that a professional keeps current with and applies evolving technical and ethical standards of practice. Expertise-Calibrated Disclosure Principle
The value that the scope and certainty of professional statements is calibrated to the professional's actual expertise i... Public Welfare Principle
The fundamental principle that public safety, health, and welfare must be held paramount in professional practice (BFO: ...
The value that a professional keeps current with and applies evolving technical and ethical standards of practice. Expertise-Calibrated Disclosure Principle
The value that the scope and certainty of professional statements is calibrated to the professional's actual expertise i... Public Welfare Principle
The fundamental principle that public safety, health, and welfare must be held paramount in professional practice (BFO: ...
Used in cases 21
Case ontologies that instantiate this class or one of its base-ontology descendants. Computed from each individual's type, so the list stays current as cases are extracted. The originating case is shown under Extraction details.
Case 4 Case 5 Case 7 Case 8 Case 9 Case 10 Case 15 Case 16 Case 56 Case 57 Case 58 Case 59 Case 71 Case 74 Case 76 Case 85 Case 86 Case 88 Case 120 Case 121 Case 177@prefix core: <http://proethica.org/ontology/core#> .
@prefix dcterms: <http://purl.org/dc/terms/> .
@prefix iao: <http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/IAO_> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix pcsh: <http://proethica.org/shapes/core#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix sh: <http://www.w3.org/ns/shacl#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
proeth:FundamentalEthicalPrinciple a owl:Class ;
rdfs:label "Fundamental Ethical Principle"@en ;
iao:0000115 "A universal moral foundation that serves as the highest-level abstraction in professional ethics, requiring extensive interpretation through concrete cases (BFO: generically dependent continuant)"@en ;
iao:0000119 "Hallamaa and Kalliokoski (2022). AI Ethics as Applied Ethics. Frontiers in Computer Science 4: 776837 (doi:10.3389/fcomp.2022.776837).",
"McLaren (2003). Extensionally defining principles and cases in ethics: An AI model. Artificial Intelligence 150(1-2): 145-181.",
"Morley et al. (2021). Ethics as a Service: A Pragmatic Operationalisation of AI Ethics. Minds and Machines 31(2): 239-256 (doi:10.1007/s11023-021-09563-w).",
"Taddeo et al. (2024). From AI Ethics Principles to Practices: A Teleological Methodology to Apply AI Ethics Principles in the Defence Domain. Philosophy & Technology 37(1): 42 (doi:10.1007/s13347-024-00710-6)." ;
dcterms:source <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-021-09563-w>,
<https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-024-00710-6>,
<https://doi.org/10.1016/S0004-3702(03)00135-8>,
<https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomp.2022.776837> ;
rdfs:comment "Examples: Public Welfare Paramount, Respect for Persons, Justice, Beneficence. These require extensive interpretation and balancing in specific contexts."@en ;
rdfs:subClassOf core:Principle ;
skos:changeNote "2026-07-06: the McLaren clause no longer attributes the example pair public welfare and respect for persons to the source (respect for persons does not occur in McLaren; public welfare only as a case title in his corpus list) and now uses the verified McLaren constructs, abstract and open-textured principles extensionally defined through decided cases. The constitutional-foundations clause co-cites Morley et al. 2021, the origin of the analogy, matching the citation form of the dissertation."@en ;
skos:definition "According to McLaren (2003), fundamental principles are abstract and open-textured, and gain operational meaning through extensional definition in decided ethics cases and professional code applications. These principles function as constitutional-like foundations (Morley et al. 2021; Taddeo et al. 2024) that mediate moral ideals into professional practice (Hallamaa and Kalliokoski 2022)."@en .
pcsh:CaseAnnotationShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Shared per-case annotation schema (all nine components)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "The cross-component annotation fields on committed case individuals: proeth:confidence (extraction confidence, decimal; all components except Action, whose Step-3 contract carries no confidence field), proeth:textReferences (verbatim supporting quotes, universal), proeth-prov sourceText (the source snippet, on the Step-1/2 provenance layers; Step-3 A/E individuals ground via textReferences only), and the involvement gloss (proeth:caseInvolvement on role individuals, proeth:caseContext on obligation, capability, and constraint individuals). Values are per-individual; the fields do not individuate any type."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "Extraction confidence for this individual (0 to 1)." ;
sh:name "confidence" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:confidence ],
[ sh:description "Verbatim case quotes supporting this individual." ;
sh:name "text references" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path proeth:textReferences ],
[ sh:description "How this individual figures in the case narrative (role individuals; the same text is routed into rdfs:comment)." ;
sh:name "case involvement" ;
sh:order 3 ;
sh:path proeth:caseInvolvement ],
[ sh:description "Grounding context in this case (obligation, capability, and constraint individuals)." ;
sh:name "case context" ;
sh:order 4 ;
sh:path proeth:caseContext ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Action,
core:Capability,
core:Constraint,
core:Event,
core:Obligation,
core:Principle,
core:Resource,
core:Role,
core:State .
pcsh:PrincipleDefinitionShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Principle definition schema (type-level, descriptive, field contract)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "What individuates a principle TYPE: its canonical kind (drives the four-kind subClassOf typing; the canonical leaf becomes the rdf:type) and the extensional cases that ground it (McLaren). The five per-case narrative literals and the invokedBy edge are per-individual and now declared on PrinciplePropertyShape, mirroring the RoleDefinitionShape/ProfessionalRolePropertyShape split so the {{ principle_schema }} prompt separates the type judgment from what the case supplies. Descriptive only (no validation result); principle_category is a routing input, not stored as a literal."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "The controlled principle kind, which drives the four-kind subClassOf typing: FundamentalEthicalPrinciple, ProfessionalVirtuePrinciple, RelationalPrinciple, DomainSpecificPrinciple. The canonical leaf label becomes the rdf:type; the category is a routing input, not stored as a literal." ;
sh:name "principle kind" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:principleCategory ],
[ sh:description "Class-level prior cases that instantiate the principle (McLaren extensional grounding); an optional class-mint field." ;
sh:name "extensional cases" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path proeth:extensionalCases ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Principle .
pcsh:PrinciplePropertyShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Principle per-case schema (individual data, non-definitional)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "What a principle INDIVIDUAL is described by in a specific case: the five narrative literals the defeasibility pipeline consumes and the agent that invokes it. These do NOT individuate the principle TYPE (that is PrincipleDefinitionShape); their values are per-case, asserted on the individual. Descriptive only."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "Per-case reading of what the principle requires in this situation (a defeasibility-pipeline source field)." ;
sh:name "interpretation" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:interpretation ],
[ sh:description "How the principle is concretely expressed in the case (a defeasibility-pipeline source field)." ;
sh:name "concrete expression" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path proeth:concreteExpression ],
[ sh:description "What the principle is applied to in the case (the situation or party it bears on)." ;
sh:name "applied to" ;
sh:order 3 ;
sh:path proeth:appliedTo ],
[ sh:description "The competing principle or value this principle is balanced against in the case, recorded as a literal; extraction records the tension but asserts no defeat or precedence, and the defeasibility edges are materialized by a separate pass from this field." ;
sh:name "balancing with" ;
sh:order 4 ;
sh:path proeth:balancingWith ],
[ sh:description "How the case resolves the tension involving this principle (a defeasibility-pipeline source field)." ;
sh:name "tension resolution" ;
sh:order 5 ;
sh:path proeth:tensionResolution ],
[ sh:description "The agent who invokes the principle, via the P->Agent invokedBy edge (resolved to a case Agent by embedding shortlist + LLM select; a Board-pattern invoking party resolves deterministically to the case-scoped NSPE Board of Ethical Review Agent). Range: Agent." ;
sh:name "invoked by" ;
sh:order 6 ;
sh:path core:invokedBy ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Principle .