In-class notes for 02/18/2020

CS 263 (ESD), Spring 2020

Ethical theories and applications

• Ethical theories notes

  • Process: Articulate, critically evaluate, analyze for clarity/coherence/consistency, claim and justify; if needed, revise and repeat (dialectic)

  • Descriptive (facts) vs normative ("oughts")

  • Ethical relativism example

  • Utilitarianism - greatest amount of happiness for greatest number of people

  • Kant, categorical imperative - respect of every person, because of capacity to reason and choose

  • Virtue ethics - what qualities make for a "good" computer scientist?

• Question for small groups: Should Facebook sell political ads that are factually false?

  • Consider each element of the process above

  • Consider each of the three theories Utilitarian, Categorical Imperative, Virtue Ethics

  • Each group reports out.

Interview emails

• Team activities:

  1. Compose an email requesting an interview from your client

  2. What releases will you request from client?

• Submit these as a PDF by Wed night "midnight"

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