Spring '23 Course Offerings
This spring, the Ethics Lab team is offering classes in bioethics, data ethics, AI ethics, and social media & democracy. Below are more details on each class, along with course registration numbers (CRNs) for students interested in registering.
Bioethics
PHIL-105, 3 credits
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)
Course Registration Number: 44587
What does it mean to have autonomy over one’s body? Why should we value not just informed but meaningful consent in health care? What value should we place on independence and dependence in health care contexts? What does it mean to be a ‘normal’ body? What is the ethical significance of being human, as opposed to being another kind of animal? And, in light of oppressive legacies of discrimination, exploitation, and inequality, what might biojustice look like in the twenty-first century? In this course, we will interrogate these and other key questions that arise in bioethics, a subject focused on pressing issues pertaining to the nature and value of our embodied existence in all its diversities.
The course is organized into 4 units. In the first unit, “Key Concepts and Encounters in Bioethics,” we will discuss foundational concepts in the discipline such as autonomy, meaningful consent, and dependence, as well as key contemporary debates and case studies that revolve on these concepts. In the second unit, “Disability and Flourishing,” students are invited to consider disability as a lens for thinking about the human condition, to think critically interrogate what ‘normal’ really means, and to reflect on the biases we bring to the variety of people who don’t fit various ‘norms’. In the third unit, “Animality and the Values of Flesh,” we will critically interrogate and discuss a range of bioethical issues—from experimentation, organ donation, and the complex relations between health and diet—that hinge on the nature and value of our existence as a particular kind of animal among others. In the fourth and final unit, “Power, Equity, and Justice in Bioethics,” we will consider how structures of power and histories of discrimination and inequality along the lines of gender, race, and coloniality transform the contours of critical issues in bioethics. We will end by thinking about what biojustice should look like in the light of the previous three units. By the end of the course, students should understand and be able to apply key ethical concepts and normative theories to analyze and evaluate cases, to understand, articulate, and defend philosophically and ethically sound positions, and to engage generatively with opposing views.
Data Ethics
PHIL-108, 3 credits
Taught by Ethics Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Alicia Patterson
Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00pm–3:15pm in Ethics Lab (Healy 201)
Satisfies Georgetown Core requirement (Philosophy)
Satisfies new Tech, Ethics, & Society program “tech + ethics” elective requirement
Course Registration Number: 42250
We willingly share data about ourselves all the time—from apps we use for purchases to Ubers we take. Consider the amount of data you share intentionally in the course of one day. What happens to all that data? We are coming to understand that it paints a picture of individuals, communities and our world that is permanent, accessible, and can be shared, sold, manipulated, and combined for purposes far beyond the intentions behind our original “disclosures.” Do we care; should we? We also unwillingly share data every day. What happens to the record of that Uber ride you took? Who is aware of your google search history? Your purchases? Your income from your part time job? Your recent arrest on a minor charge? What should governments, parents, employers, be able to learn about you? Does Georgetown read your emails? Should they? In this course, we will explore the rapidly changing landscape of Data Ethics.
Ethical Challenges of AI
PHIL-109, 3 credits
Taught by Ethics Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Shannon Brick
Class meets Mondays and Wednesdays, 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: 44588
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.
Social Media & Democracy
PHIL-110, 3 credits
Taught by Ethics Lab Postdoctoral Fellow Kate Wojtkiewicz
Class meets Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00pm–3:15pm in Ethics Lab (Healy 201)
Course Registration Number: 44589
This course will examine questions of truth, democracy, and politics in the age of social media by drawing on contemporary case studies and philosophical tools from ethics, political philosophy, and epistemology.