PHIL 3360 Prof. Bruce Umbaugh Webster University Fall, 1996 Tu Th 10:00-11:20 Pearson House Room 4
office hours: Tu 3:00-4:00
Th 11:30-12:00
and by appointment
This course treats ethical issues created, aggravated, or transformed by computing technology and by the movement of humans onto the "electronic frontier" of cyberspace. From a sufficiently abstract vantage point, the course is about how we ought to live our lives and arrange our society, given these new technologies. It is about how we ought to arrange our technologies to bring about good social and ethical outcomes.
At a lower level of abstraction, this course is about how facts of technology affect what ought to be or what we ought to do. It is about the differences between human and technological solutions to problems, and about developing appropriate metaphors to guide our conduct in the face of these new technologies. It is about things we value, such as privacy and freedom of expression.
Viewed another way, the course is
about hacking, mind control, piracy,
crypto-anarchy, Big Brother, the rush
of re-inventing oneself and of
confronting other minds, and about
making the world a better place.
Textbooks
A detailed calendar of topics and
reading assignments appears below.
Topics overlap one another to some
extent. On whim, the instructor may
alter the schedule. Put simply, in
outline, the course topics are:
Case study 10% Two exams 35% Book review 20% Term project 20% Collegial participation 15%
Each student is to prepare a written
case study of an episode or pending
issue relating to ethical concerns about
cyberspace. I have a healthy list of
such topics prepared, and I encourage
you to draw from it, although I will
entertain your alternative suggestions.
The finished product for this
assignment should run about 1000
words. It is due at class, September
24. It counts ten percent towards
your grade for the course.
Two exams
A mid-term examination and a final
examination, on October and
December 17, respectively, offer the
opportunity to demonstrate your
mastery of material covered in the
course. Each exam will cover the
entirety of the course to that point.
The exams will mix essay and short
answer questions. The two together
account for thirty-five percent of your
grade in the course.
Book review
Each student should complete a
professional-style review of a recent
book having to do with the value of
cyberspace or the Net. Again, I will
entertain alternative suggestions, but I
recommend students choose from
the recent "big picture" books Turkle,
Life on the Screen, Stoll, Silicon Snake
Oil, and Talbott, The Future Does Not
Compute. More detail on how to
understand "professional-style review"
will be forthcoming. The finished
review--running on the order of
1500-2000 words--accounts for
twenty percent of your grade and is
due at the start of Week 12 (i.e.,
November 19).
Term project
Each student is to complete a project
relating to the course. This may be a
standard research paper, or it might
be a collection of World Wide Web
pages. In either case, it should be a
substantial piece of work that treats an
issue having to do with "ethics for
cyberspace" in a thoughtful and
professional way. (So, for example, a
chatty, "Why I like (hate) computers a
lot" probably does not qualify, nor
does a collection of hot links "My
favorite sites on the World Wide
Web.") The project constitutes twenty
percent of your course grade.
Collegial participation
Each student will be expected to participate in class discussion. Your efforts and success at contributing to your colleagues' education will be the basis for fifteen percent of your grade in the course.
Technically speaking, attendance in class is not required. The basic structure of grading in the course does not involve me awarding you credits in virtue of your presence in the classroom each Tuesday and Thursday. Nonetheless, students are encouraged to attend every class. There is ordinarily a strong correlation between good class attendance and good grades in a class such as this one. Much information will be presented in class, including examples and elaboration not to be found in our texts. Announcements will be made. Handouts will be distributed. You are responsible for knowing all this and for having any additional materials distributed in class.
Although I will make myself available
to help students outside class,
students who do not attend class
meetings should not expect to be
rewarded with intensive assistance. In
addition, students who do not attend
class cannot earn collegial participation
credit in their absence. Finally, note
that I reserve the right to reward
students who have attended class
faithfully, displayed significant effort,
and made significant contributions to
the class.
Policy on academic dishonesty
Students in this class are expected to
do their own work and not to rely on
the work of others. While students
are welcome to work with one
another to understand the material,
any student plagiarizing, cheating on
an exam, aiding another student to
cheat, or committing any other act of
academic dishonesty will be referred
for appropriate disciplinary action.
Please consult with me if you have any
questions in this regard, either about
your own work or that of another
person.
Course Schedule