Phil 327 – Ethics in the Information Age -- Spring, 2014 

Metropolitan Sate University

 

 

Syllabus

 

Paper Assignments  (Note:  These are carried over from last year.  Check back for updated versions before you write your papers)

 

First Paper assignment (updated for Spring 2014)

 

Second Paper Assignment (updated for Spring 2014)

 

Third Paper Assignment (updated for Spring 2014)

Paper writing guides: 

    from Williams College

    from Jim Pryor of NYU

 

Office Hours: In my office (312 St. John's Hall, St. Paul Campus) Monday 2-5, Tuesday 5-7, and by appointment


Schedule of assignments
Date Topic Reading Writing Due Handouts - in class stuff
Jan 14 Introduction none   Cases for Discussion
Jan 21 Overview: Personal, Professional, and Social Issues in Information Technology

Quinn, Chapter 1;  

Benkler, Wealth of Networks, Introduction (online here - HTML formatted for easy reading - or here - PDF formated for saving paper when printing)   

The Case of the Killer Robot (online here)

Response to Readings  
Jan. 28 Ethical Theories 1: Relativism, Religion, Kant Quinn, Chapter 2 through p. 75;  Excerpts from Kant (with notes); "The Truth in Ethical Relativism" by Hugh LaFollette Response to Readings Discussion Project: Applying Kant
Feb. 4 Ethical Theories 2: Utilitarianism, Social Contract theory Quinn, Chapter 2, the rest; "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" by Peter Singer; Prisoners' Dilemma: Game and Explanation: "We are all Prisoners" and "An Ethic Based on Prisoners' Dilemma" by Jonathan Blumen; (another version of the game) Response to Readings Discussion Project: Applying Utilitarianism ;  First Paper assignment handed out
Feb 11 Professional/Business ethics 1: responsibilities, standards, codes Quinn, Chapter 9, through p. 427 Response to Readings Discussion Project:Applying the Software Engineering Code of Ethics
Feb 18 Professional/Business ethics 2: whistleblowing, loyalty Quinn, Chapter 9, the rest; also "Encouraging Internal Whistleblowing in Organizations" by Lilanthi Ravishankar ;  "Illusions of whistleblower protection" by Brian Martin, University of Wolongong;  Brian Martin's summary of Robert Jackall's discussion of whistleblowing; Summary of Jackall's book "Moral Mazes" (pdf) by Damian Grace, University of New South Wales Response to Readings; First Paper Due Discussion Project: Whistleblowing
Feb 25 Computer Security and Reliability From Quinn, Chapter 7: the first three sections (I.e., 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 - through page 330);
From Quinn, Chapter 8: the first four sections and the last two (pp. 355-371 and 381-390);
Principles for Fair Commerce in Digital Products (shorter)
Principles for Fair Commerce in Digital Products (longer)		 Response to Readings Discussion project on software warranties
March 4 Spam, Pornography, Free Speech, Censorship Quinn, Chapter 3; Brian Leiter on Cyber-Cesspools, cleaner version, explicit version Response to Readings Second Paper Assignment handed out
March 11 Spring Break -- No Class      
March 18 Privacy 1 - What is privacy and why is it important? -- private sector policies and practices Quinn, Chapter 5; MSNBC article on privacy law Response to Readings Discussion project on privacy;
March 25 Privacy 2 - Privacy and the Government Quinn, Chapter 6; plus whatever you have time for from the articles listed on this page (Now updated for Fall 2013) Response to Readings Discussion project on Surveillance
April 1 Intellectual Property 1 Read this first: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html;  then Quinn, Chapter 4 links to further (optional) materials on copyright Response to Readings; Second paper due Larry Lessig's TED talk Discussion project on Copyright
April 8 Intellectual Property 2 Benkler, Wealth of Networks, Introduction to Chapter 2 (pp. 35-41); Chapter 3 (pp. 59-90); last section of Chapter 5 (pp. 161-175) (Here's a page with more detailed information on this reading assignment.) Response to Readings Film: Revolution OS
April 15 The Internet and Democracy Benkler, Wealth of Networks, Chapter 7 - html here, pdf here (Chapter 6 is optional); "The Daily We" by Cass Sunstein; "Reflections on Information Technology and Democracy" by Joshua Cohen Response to Readings Discussion Project on the Internet and Democracy Benkler Notes
April 22 Access and Equity Quinn, Chapter 10 Response to Readings Story of Stuff videos: Stuff in general Electronic stuff
April 29 No class

Submit third position paper by email by midnight.

 Third paper due