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COMP 491/492

Dickinson College Computer Science Senior Seminar

RD13 - Introduction to Ethics

Preparation

Review the expectations for preparation for the Readings and Class Discussions.

Assigned Readings

Read the following short pieces by Manuel Velasquez, Claire Andre,Thomas Shanks, S.J., and Michael J. Meyer from the Santa Clara Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.

Discussion Questions

Think about and prepare responses for the following questions. We will discuss these in small groups and as a class.

  1. What is ethics? What is it not?
  2. The words morals and ethics are both used throughout the readings. These words often seem to be being used interchangeably. What meaningful distinction can be drawn between the terms morals and ethics?
  3. We face moral decisions all of the time, some small, some large, some consequential, some not.
    • List some examples of moral decisions that you have made.
    • What are some of the strategies that you used when making those decisions?
    • Identify the Kohlberg level of moral development (preconventional, conventional, and postconventional) for each of the strategies identified.
  4. The reading on Thinking Ethically describes five approaches to ethical thinking (Utilitarian, Rights, Fairness or Justice, Common Good, Virtue).
    • Which of these approaches resonates most strongly with you? Least strongly? Why?
  5. The Milgram experiment demonstrated that a perception of authority strongly influenced individuals’ behavior when asked to perform acts that they would normally deem immoral.
    • How might a similar situation arise in the career that you envision for yourself?
    • What factors other than authority might lead you to compromise your morals in a professional setting?
    • How might you mitigate those ethical risks?

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License All textual materials used in this course are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

GPL V3 or Later All executable code used in this course is licensed under the GNU General Public License Version 3 or later