Computer Ethics (cis 12W/Philosophy 14. 4) Fall 2005
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- Read this syllabus carefully. It contains answers to the questions you will raise during the semester.
- I will not accept late assignments
- There will be no exceptions.
- CIS12W_fall05
- Professional Codes of Conduct
- Course Objectives
- Goal
| Computer Ethics (CIS 12W/Philosophy 14.4) Fall 2005
Professor: Samir Chopra Office: 1214 Ingersoll Hall Mailbox: 2109 Ingersoll Hall Email: schopra@sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu (the best way to get in touch) Phone: 718.951.4139 Class Meetings: Wednesday: 9:25 AM – 12:05 PM (214 New Ingersoll Hall) Office hours: Wednesday: 12: 15 PM – 1:15 PM (or by appointment) An electronic copy of this syllabus can be found at: www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~schopra/teach.html Exceptions to Class Schedule: We will not meet on October 5th and 12th. Read this syllabus carefully. It contains answers to the questions you will raise during the semester. Required Textbooks (SML) Richard A. Spinello, Cyberethics: Morality and Law in Cyberspace, Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Massachusetts, 2005. ISBN: 0-7637-0064-9 (ST) Richard A. Spinello and Herman T. Tavani, Readings in Cyberethics (2nd ed.), Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Massachusetts, 2005. ISBN: 0-7637-2410-6 Book website: http://www.jppub.com/cyberethics Introduction Any technology brings with it an attendant ethical debate: the appropriate uses of the technology, the challenges it raises for traditional ethical theories, its effect on social norms and structures and so on. Any mature technology must train its practitioners to become familiar with the ethical debates associated with the field. Recognizing this, premier computer science professional societies such as the Association for Computing Machinery have long made Computers and Ethics an integral part of curricular recommendations. Computing raises an interesting set of challenges because of the rethinking it forces of many established norms (the nature of production, the kinds of economies created, the social and political change it enables or disables and so on). This class' task is to make students aware that as computer professionals designing, using and maintaining computing technologies they have a special responsibility to understand the ethical issues that those technologies raise. In this class we will focus on four areas: regulation and laws, free speech, privacy, security and codes of conduct for computer scientists. To enable a systematic assessment of arguments made in this sphere, we will apply traditional ethical theories such as virtue ethics, utilitarianism, or deontological theories to debates in computing technology. This is a writing-intensive class. Expect to do lots of reading and writing. It is not an ‘easy’ class because ‘there won’t be any programming’. Writing good essays is as hard - and as your employers will let you know, as important - as writing good code. Course Requirements Attendance and Participation: 20% of the final grade Paper Assignments: 80% of the final grade (4 assignments – each for 20 %) Assignment Guidelines
Attendance
Classroom Participation Participation in class discussion is of paramount importance. Your understanding of topics will be best displayed by asking intelligent, well reasoned questions, raising valid objections to arguments and displaying an awareness of issues raised in assigned readings. Nothing you say in class will cause your grade to be lowered. Asking questions about the lectures and the readings will aid your understanding of the material, and help me as well. Each class discussion will build upon previous sessions. Absence from a class means that you will not profit from the class discussion and that your ability to answer exam questions and write relevant papers will be diminished. The classroom is not the place for tirades, personal attacks and hostile polemics. If you have a point to make, express it as a reasoned argument. Otherwise, I will not take you seriously (and neither will anyone else in the class). Grade Scale
Class Mailing List Go to www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/cis/majordomo/?cis12_fall05, pick the ‘subscribe’ (default) option (the list name is CIS12W_fall05) and enter your email address. Subscription to the class mailing list is mandatory. Any student not registered at the end of the first week of class will lose a grade on the first writing assignment. Readings All readings listed below are required in that they can, and will be, the subject of questions asked on writing assignments. The more you read this semester, the more you will get out of this class. The topics covered in this class are not simple, and require considerable diligence in reading the material indicated. If you find the vocabulary unfamiliar, work with a dictionary. If you find material hard going, don’t worry, it is meant to be hard. Work through the readings closely, and, if need be, more than once. Your classroom experience will be immeasurably enhanced and enriched if you come to each lecture having worked through the indicated readings. Conversely, the classroom experience will be considerably diminished if you insist on coming to class unprepared. If you do not do the readings every week, you will not follow the lectures and you will almost certainly receive bad grades on the writing assignments. Please use the Internet to look for additional reading for topics covered in class, as research resources for your papers and to further pursue your readings if this area interests you. A good strategy for broadening your readings would be to search for authors mentioned in the reading list to look at other writings of theirs – and to chase down links provided on those pages. All readings below are from the ST text unless otherwise indicated. I will occasionally provide additional readings – either by sending you a link to a webpage or by giving you a handout in class. These readings will also be required. The Basic Issues
Regulating the Internet
Intellectual Property
Privacy
Security
Professional Codes of Conduct
Course Objectives Goal:Understanding the ethical issues in computing. Learning objectives: By course-end the student will be able to understand and evaluate arguments pertaining to the analysis of ethical issues as they arise in the following areas:
Goal:Effective Writing Learning objectives: Ability to express ideas clearly in writing, which includes the ability to:
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