Welcome to
Ethical Considerations in Technology and Applied Science
NEWS: Updated 11/20/08
Remember, in facing a moral dilemma the challenge you are faced with is more than simply the articulation of your current beliefs. Your current beliefs, or intuitions, serve as a starting point for your investigation. Our goal is to provide reasons for views... even better, to let the evidence be the source which guides you to your beliefs.
[1] Revised DUE DATE for the paper: Saturday, December 6th, 6pm (PST)
[2] One final assignment... evaluate your fellow group members. The form is available here.
EXAM to be held during week 10. General Study Guide
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Decision Procedures: Utilitarianism and Kant's Deontology
Decision Procedures: Virtue Ethics & Existentialist Ethics
Lecture Notes:
Foundations: Beliefs, Reasons, and Ethics
Our Differing Values: Is Morality Relative or Absolute? (Plus, Tools for Analyzing Cases)
Kant's Deontological Ethics & Two Moral Tests: Creative Middle Ways & Line Drawing Analyses (Note: order slightly different from syllabus)
Virtue Ethics, Existentialist Ethics AND Motivations to be Moral: Why do the right thing?
OLD NEWS:
Play "Taboo" at the Philosophers' Magazine Website: http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/taboo.htm
LINKS:
Articles of Interest:
W. K. Clifford's The Ethics of Belief: http://people.brandeis.edu/~rind/bentley/Clifford_ethics.pdf
James Rachels' "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism" http://www.dushkin.com/text-data/articles/19736/19736.mhtml
Norman Swartz's "Philosophy as a Blood Sport" http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/blood_sport.htm
DOING PHILOSOPHY:
Jim Pryor's Guidelines for READING philosophy: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/reading.html
Jim Pryor's Guidelines for WRITING a philosophy paper: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html
Garth Kemerling's on-line DICTIONARY of PHILOSOPHICAL TERMS and NAMES: http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/
Internet ENCYCLOPEDIA of Philosophy: http://www.iep.utm.edu/
Stanford ENCYCLOPEDIA of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/
DOING RESEARCH:
APA Citation help from OWL (on-line writing lab) at Purdue University: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
MLA Citation help from OWL (on-line writing lab) at Purdue University: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/
Finding RELIABLE sources on the web -- Librarians' Internet Index: http://lii.org/
Finding RELIABLE scholarly sources on the web -- Infomine: http://infomine.ucr.edu/
PHILOSOPHY GOES TO THE MOVIES:
"Sooner or later, life makes philosophers of us all..." --Maurice Riseling
Though philosophy may come off as abstract and impenetrable, it's actually a discipline that can tell us something about ourselves... about how we ought to lead our lives. Have you ever thought about the philosophical or moral import of movies and television? Consider the following:
Consequentialism: (1) Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan (2) Extreme Measures
Deontology: (1) High Noon (2) The Insider
Virtue Ethics: (1) As Good as it Gets
Egoism: (1) Crimes and Misdemeanors
Personhood: (1) Gattaca (2) Blade Runner