Fall '22 Course Offerings
This Fall, the Ethics Lab team offers a variety of courses, including three new to Ethics Lab—Data Ethics; new Ethical Challenges of AI; new Design Justice & Technology; and a new 1-credit Drawing Sociotechnical Systems. Below are more details on each class, along with course registration numbers (CRNs) for students interested in registering.
Data Ethics (PHIL-108)
Taught by Ethics Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Joel de Lara
Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11:00am–12:15pm in Ethics Lab (Healy 201)
Satisfies Georgetown Core requirement (Philosophy)
Satisfies new Tech, Ethics, & Society program “tech + ethics” elective requirement
Course Registration Number: 41684
What are data? What kind of evidence do data provide? What responsibilities do we have as individuals, groups, and societies when it comes to how data are generated, interpreted, and used? When and why should we rely upon data to inform our ethical and political decisions? And what might data justice look like?
Across the private and public sectors, analyses of increasingly big data sets are rolled out in support of everything from product design to policy development. Central to the appeal of data is the idea that they can provide ‘objective’ evidence to guide and improve decisions we make in private and public life—everything from what car to buy to how to deal with a global health pandemic to saving our environment. Yet, attendant to the promise of data are a host of significant ethical and social questions and challenges. The proliferation of data and our growing reliance on algorithms to analyze them to guide our choices (including machine learning, AI, and robotics), as well as the gradual reduction of human involvement and oversight over many automatic processes, pose pressing issues of fairness, truth, autonomy, responsibility, equity, and respect. Meanwhile, the rise of ‘post-truth’ political movements and the toxic effects of disinformation, cynicism, and the lurch toward negative identity formation in democracies across the globe have made it clear that even the most carefully and responsibly generated data will not necessarily be valued or help to establish consensus. In this course, students will be introduced to data ethics through various philosophical lenses—from normative and applied ethics to political philosophy, social epistemology, critical race theory, and feminist philosophy. We will grapple throughout with contemporary case studies largely within the US and in particular in relation to the topics of climate change, racial reckoning and indigeneity, and gender, sexuality, and patriarchy.
Ethical Challenges of AI (PHIL-109) * NEW *
Taught by Ethics Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Jason Farr
Class meets Mondays and Wednesday, 11:00am–12:15pm in Ethics Lab (Healy 201)
Satisfies Georgetown Core requirement (Philosophy)
Satisfies new Tech, Ethics, & Society program “tech + ethics” elective requirement
Course Registration Number: 39966
Is artificial intelligence a force for good? Or is it a threat to human life as we know it? On the one hand, it promises economic development, efficiency, convenience, and medical breakthroughs. On the other hand, we already see negative impacts of artificial intelligence in our society today, from inequality and inequity to privacy violations to unprecedented accumulations and concentrations of power. What will human life look like once we fully incorporate artificial intelligence into our lives—indeed, into our bodies and minds? What will it mean to flourish as a human being? What will our social lives look like? Are these lives we want? Are they morally laudable? Are they inevitable?
In this course, you will learn new philosophical concepts and perspectives that will enable you to reflect on human life in new ways. You will practice interrogating your assumptions about ethical issues relating to artificial intelligence, and you will practice clarifying your assumptions and clarifying the ethical issues that arise in the course of your reflection. You will also practice reading and writing philosophical texts, charitably reconstructing philosophers’ arguments, and crafting careful, well-constructed arguments of your own. And, importantly, we will practice respectful and detailed discussion of important ethical issues relating to tech and AI.
Design Justice & Technology (IDST-204) * NEW *
Taught by Ethics Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Alicia Patterson & Assistant Professor Julie Sayo
Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00pm–3:15pm in Ethics Lab (Healy 201)
Satisfies new Tech, Ethics, & Society program “tech + ethics” elective requirement
Course Registration Number: 41748
This course will explore the design of technology and its impact on society. We will consider how design influences and shapes our experiences, our communities, and our connections. What makes tech good? And for whom? What kind of responsibilities do designers have? Students will learn visual design techniques to understand and engage with critical theory to consider what role design plays in a just society.
Drawing Sociotechnical Systems (IDST-124) * NEW 1-credit*
Taught by Ethics Lab Professor of Practice Jonathan Healey & Assistant Professor Sydney Luken
Class meets Wednesdays, 3:30pm–4:20pm in Ethics Lab (Healy 201); this limited-run 1-credit course concludes after seven weeks from the start of the Fall semester
Part of Georgetown’s “Just Communities” Courses
Course Registration Number: 42115
Drawing, Technically: Sociotechnical Systems Edition — This 1-credit studio course taught by Ethics Lab faculty is an introduction to drawing, technically… but more than that it’s an exploration of the ways in which we shape our tools—and how thereafter they shape us. Through doodling, diagramming, mapping, and more, we’ll experience the discursive and epistemic power of drawing to better understand, explain, and ideate on complex, interdisciplinary challenges at the intersection of tech and society.