Phil 327 – Ethics in the Information Age -- Summer, 2014
Metropolitan Sate University
Paper Assignments (Note: These are carried over from last semester. Check back for updated versions before you write your papers)
Paper writing guides:
Office Hours: Before class on Tuesday afternoon's in the commons area downstairs, and by appointment.
Date | Topic | Reading | Writing Due | Handouts - in class stuff |
---|---|---|---|---|
May 13 | Introduction
|
none
|
Cases for Discussion; Discussion Project: Identifying Ethical Issues
|
|
May 20 | 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) -- you may safely skip the section called "Four Methodological Comments" but do read the section that comes after it. The Case of the Killer Robot (online here) |
Response to Readings | Discussion Project Killer Robot |
May 27 | Ethical
Theories 1: Relativism, Religion, Kant
|
Quinn,
Chapter 2, the first six sections, through p. 72; Excerpts
from Kant (with notes); "The Truth in Ethical Relativism" by Hugh LaFollette
|
Response to Readings | Discussion Project: Applying Kant |
June 3 | Ethical
Theories 2: Utilitarianism, Social Contract theory
|
Quinn,
Chapter 2, the rest (but skip section 10 on virtue ethics for now); "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
|
June 10 | Professional/Business
ethics 1: responsibilities, standards, codes
|
Quinn, Chapter 2, section 10, pp. 89-94; Chapter 9, the first five sections, through p. 430 |
Response to Readings | Discussion Project:Applying the Software Engineering Code of Ethics |
June 17 | 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 |
June 24 | Computer Security and
Reliability
|
From Quinn, Chapter 7: the first three sections, through page 335); Chapter 8: the first four sections and the last two (pp. 361-377 and 387-398); Principles for Fair Commerce in Digital Products (shorter) Principles for Fair Commerce in Digital Products (longer) |
Response to Readings | Discussion
project on software warranties
|
July 1 | 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 |
July 8 | Privacy
1
|
|
Response to Readings |
|
July 15 | Privacy
2
|
Quinn,
Chapter 6; plus whatever you have time for from the articles
listed on this page |
Response to Readings | Discussion project on Surveillance
|
July 22 | Intellectual
Property 1
|
Read this first: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html; then Quinn,
Chapter 4
|
Response to Readings; Second paper due | Larry Lessig's TED talk Discussion project on Copyright
|
July 29 | 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)
|
Response to Readings | Film: Revolution OS |
Aug. 5 | 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 |
Aug. 12 | Access and Equity | Quinn, Chapter 10 | Response to Readings | Story of Stuff videos: Stuff in general Electronic stuff |
Aug. 16 | Third paper Due | Submit third position paper by email by midnight. |
Third paper due |