Dear SEP Families,
Students were fairly quick to understand the basic ethical theories we discussed, such as consequentialism (the view that good consequences make an action right) and deontology (the view that following certain rules and constraints make an action right). They also understood how to use ethical principles as both positive considerations and constraints on issues. When applying these principles and theories to new technologies, students were quick to grasp the way moral principles conflict with each other at times. Overall, the students overall were good about seeing different constraints and duties, and discussing the various pitfalls that emerging technologies might bring.
Students enjoyed our discussions of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence and self-driving, fully autonomous vehicles. Students were quick to speculate about new technologies, and to grasp both mostly the potential benefits and potential pitfalls humanity might encounter because of these new technologies.
One challenging part of the course was discussing and understanding how new technologies might affect people from different backgrounds (social, ethnic, economic, etc.) differently and how small changes can lead to drastic problems for future generations. Another challenging part of the course was seeing the downsides to some technologies that on the surface look as if they will be purely beneficial to humanity. We talked through difficult issues, and looked at how automation of industries can lead to net loss of jobs, and learned how to critically think about the problems that we will face in the future.
Students were fairly quick to understand the basic ethical theories we discussed, such as consequentialism (the view that good consequences make an action right) and deontology (the view that following certain rules and constraints make an action right). They also understood how to use ethical principles as both positive considerations and constraints on issues. When applying these principles and theories to new technologies, students were quick to grasp the way moral principles conflict with each other at times. Overall, the students overall were good about seeing different constraints and duties, and discussing the various pitfalls that emerging technologies might bring.
Students enjoyed our discussions of new technologies, especially artificial intelligence and self-driving, fully autonomous vehicles. Students were quick to speculate about new technologies, and to grasp both mostly the potential benefits and potential pitfalls humanity might encounter because of these new technologies.
One challenging part of the course was discussing and understanding how new technologies might affect people from different backgrounds (social, ethnic, economic, etc.) differently and how small changes can lead to drastic problems for future generations. Another challenging part of the course was seeing the downsides to some technologies that on the surface look as if they will be purely beneficial to humanity. We talked through difficult issues, and looked at how automation of industries can lead to net loss of jobs, and learned how to critically think about the problems that we will face in the future.
Resources for Continued Learning
Books your student might find interesting:
Websites that may be useful:
Thank you for being a part of SEP Session 3.
- The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (An old but great introduction to prominent issues in philosophy, very assessable. As it is an old book, it is available for free online at: http://www.ditext.com/russell/russell.html)
- Everyday Morality: An Introduction to Applied Ethics by Mike Martin
- Ethics and Emerging Technologies by Ronald Sandler
- Practical Ethics by Peter Singer
- Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence edited by Susan Schneider
Websites that may be useful:
- The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/
- Essentially the Wikipedia of philosophy with articles written by experts in each sub-discipline.
- The Daily Nous - http://dailynous.com/
- A blog the covers professional philosophy, and features links to interviews with philosophers, and news articles and opinion pieces by philosophers.
- Michael Sandel (Harvard) has an excellent introductory college course to moral and political philosophy (titled “Justice”) with the lectures and material available online. It can be found at http://www.justiceharvard.org/
Thank you for being a part of SEP Session 3.
