Phil 327 – Ethics in the Information Age --Fall, 2022
Metropolitan State University
Position Paper Assignments (Note: these are carried over from last semester. They probably won't change much, if at all, but check back to make sure you have the current version.)
First Position Paper Assignment (Due Monday October 3 by 10AM 2PM)
Second Position Paper Assignment (due Monday Nov. 7, Nov. 14 by 10AM)
Third Position Paper Assignment (due Monday, Dec. 12, by 10AM)
Philosophy paper writing guides (relevant more to Position Papers #2 and#3 than to #1):
from Joe Cruz of Williams College
Date | Topic | Reading (to be completed before class) | Writing Due | Handouts - in class stuff |
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Aug. 26 | Introduction
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none
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Cases for Discussion; Discussion Project: Identifying Ethical Issues |
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Sept. 2 | Overview:
Personal, Professional, and Social Issues in Information Technology
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1. Quinn, Ethics for the Information Age,Chapter 1 (Optional - read this if you have time and interest after doing the other readings); |
Response to Readings | Discussion Project: Killer Robot |
Sept. 9 | Ethical
Theories 1: Relativism, Religion, Kant
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1. Quinn,
Chapter 2, the first six sections, through p. 71; |
Response to Readings | Discussion Project: Applying Kant; Cases for Discussion |
Sept. 16 | Ethical
Theories 2: Utilitarianism, Social Contract theory
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1. Quinn,
Chapter 2, the rest (but skip section 10 on virtue ethics for now); |
Response to Readings | Discussion Project: Applying Utilitarianism;
Notes on Rawls on Justice |
Sept. 23 | Professional/Business
ethics 1: responsibilities, standards, codes
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1. Quinn, Chapter 2, section 10, (pp. 87-92 in the printed version); 2. Quinn, Chapter 9, the first five sections, (through p. 462 |
Response to Readings | Discussion Project:Applying the Software Engineering Code of Ethics; Cases for Discussion |
Sept. 30 | Professional/Business
ethics 2: whistleblowing and loyalty
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1. Quinn,
Chapter 9, the rest (i.e., section 9.6); 2. "Illusions of whistleblower protection" by Brian Martin, 3. Brian Martin's summary of Robert Jackall's discussion of whistleblowing; 4. Summary of Jackall's book "Moral Mazes" (pdf) by Damian Grace, University of New South Wales |
Response to Readings; First Position Paper due Monday, October 3 |
Discussion Project on Whistleblowing |
Oct. 7 | 1. Quinn, Chapter 3, sections 1, 3, 4, and 10 (skip section 2 on spam, or read it if you have time and interest; we'll read the remaining sections (5 through 9) next week); 2. Nicholas Carr, "The Platform Is the Conversation" (Carr is the author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing To Our Brains. Here he is responding to the news from a few years ago that Facebook ran experiments on the emotional psychology of its users.) 3. Nat Eliason, The Destructive Switch from Search to Social 4. Andrew Sullivan on Internet addiction: I Used To Be a Human Being (I'm putting this last, even though I think it's one of the best, because it is rather long. Maybe you won't have time, but I hope you will.) |
First Position Paper due Monday, October 3;Response to Readings | Discussion project on Facebook whistleblower | |
Oct. 14 | Free Speech, Censorship and related issues | 1. Quinn, Chapter 3, sections 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9; 2. "CDA 230: The Most Important Law Protecting Internet Speech" from the Electronic Frontier Foundation 3. “Is This the Beginning of the End of the Internet?” by Charlie Warzel https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/09/netchoice-paxton-first-amendment-social-media-content-moderation/671574/ 4. Recommendations from the Center for Countering Digital Hate: https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Copy-of-STAR-Framework-for-website.pdf
If you can possibly find the time, please also check out these recent news stories:
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Response to Readings | Second Paper Assignment handed out; |
Oct. 21 | Privacy
1
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2. MSNBC article on privacy law |
Response to Readings |
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Oct. 28 | Privacy
2
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1. Quinn, Chapter 6, "Privacy and the Government"; 2. Privacy scholar Daniel Solove takes on the claim that people with “nothing to hide” need not worry about government surveillance and data-aggregation: 3. Solove answers some other pro-surveillance arguments: |
Response to Readings | Discussion project on Surveillance
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Nov. 4 |
5. Racial bias in facial recognition technology: https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2020/racial-discrimination-in-face-recognition-technology/
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Response to Readings; Second Position Paper due by 10am Monday November 14; |
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Nov. 11 | 1. Quinn, Chapter 4 "Intellectual Property" -- If you have time and interest, read the whole chapter. If not read at least:
2. Richard Stallman, Misinterpreting Copyright—A Series of Errors 3. links to further (optional) materials on copyright - read some of this if you have time and interest. |
Response to Readings Second Position Paper due by 10am Monday November 14; |
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Nov. 18 | Access, Equity, and Work | 1. Quinn, Chapter 10, “Work and Wealth” 2. Daron Acemoglu, “AI's Future Doesn't Have to Be Dystopian" (Optional: If you had time to read some of the replies to this essay that can be found at the top and bottom of the article, that would be great.) [Note: Some of the ideas in this essay will also be relevant the topic we will take up after the Thanksgiving break: the effect of information technology and the internet on politics and democracy.]
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Response to Readings Second Position Paper due by 10am Monday November 14; |
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Nov. 25 | The day after the Thanksgiving holiday | No Class -- but what a great opportunity to get a head start on the large amount of reading for next week. | ||
Dec. 2 | The Internet and Democracy
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Some blame the internet for polarization and misinformation in our society: 2. Sunstein on Group Polarization and Cybercascades
3. A recent example: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-knew-radicalized-users-rcna3581 But others blame increasingly propagandistic broadcast media (like Fox News): 4. "Selling Outrage" Deborah Chasman interviews our old friend Yochai Benkler. This interview begins with his diagnosis of the roots of these problems. About halfway through, the conversation turns to the question of what to do: Benkler's focus is on how to improve journalistic practices to make it harder for misinformation and propaganda to spread. 5. Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen tries to sort it out: https://bostonreview.net/articles/polarization-or-propaganda/ 6. Some think we need to "Bring Back the Fairness Doctrine" 7. But Surveillance Capitalism author Shoshana Zuboff argues in a recent essay that we need to destroy the whole data extraction business model of 'big tech'. |
Response to Readings | |
Dec.9 | Wrap Up; Course evaluations |
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Response to readings Third paper due by 10am on Monday Dec. 12
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Story of Stuff videos: Stuff in general; Electronic stuff |