Philosophy 210B – Engineering and Computer Science Ethics

Winter 2010

Instructor: Dr. Jeffrey Koperski

Office: Brown 315

Description: This course will introduce basic issues in engineering and computer ethics, especially those problems engineers, computer scientists, and IT professionals face in a corporate setting. The course has four parts. Part 1 is an introduction including two case studies. Part 2 examines the major normative ethical theories based on the notions of duties, rights, consequences, and virtue. Part 3 is a broad survey of the professional’s obligations to society, employer, and client. Part 4 examines the special problems of intellectual property rights and computer technologies.

Objectives: Students should be able to identify various ethical problems commonly faced by engineers and computer professionals. This identification should include the ability to clearly present the justification behind the student’s own views about the issues and case studies. In order to do this effectively, the student should be able to use the conceptual tools found in modern philosophical ethics (see Parts 2 and 3 in the Description). Moreover, students should develop a sufficient “eye” for the problems involved that they can see them in advance of a real-world crisis, rather than merely react to one. Ultimately, the goal is for students to see themselves as moral agents with a special responsibility to uphold the ethical standards in their profession.

Text: Deborah G. Johnson, Computer Ethics 4^th ed (2009). Other readings are online or on Vspace.

Assignments:

15% Exam 1

15% Exam 3

10% In-Class Assignments

15% Paper

15% Final

15% Class Presentation

15% Exam 2

Paper topics and format will be given later in the semester. See Paper Grades (http://www.svsu.edu/~koperski/PaperGrades.htm) for more on my grading criteria. All papers must be submitted to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the terms of use agreement posted on the Turnitin.com site. Papers not submitted to this service will not be graded.
Class presentations will begin around the eighth week of the semester. The presentation is to be a 15 minute critical analysis of a case study not covered in class from this list (http://www.svsu.edu/~koperski/cases.htm).

In-class assignments include short essay questions as well as pop quizzes on the assigned reading material or the previous lecture. There are no make-ups for in-class assignments.

Grades will be assigned on the following scale:

Scale:	92-100 A	78-79 C+
	90-91 A-	70-77 C
	88-89 B+	61-69 D
	82-87 B	60 F
	80-81 B-

Final grades will never be lower than those prescribed above as long as all work has been submitted. There is no curve for individual assignments, but a curve on cumulative course grades is possible. Late work will be penalized by one letter grade per calendar day. There are no extra credit assignments available for this course.

Course Schedule