Week 1: Introduction - Ethics of Science and Technology
- No readings or videos assigned
Week 2: Effective Altruism
Read:
- Srinivasan, Amia. “Stop the Robot Apocalypse.” London Review of Books 37, no. 18 (2015): 3–6.
Browse:
- “Turning Good Intentions into Greater Impact.” Effective Altruism.
- “What Is Effective Altruism?” Giving What We Can.
Supplementary readings (optional):
- Crary, Alice. “Against ‘Effective Altruism’.” Radical Philosophy 210 (2021): 33–43.
- Christian, Alex. “FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Believed in ‘Effective Altruism’. What Is It?” BBC. October 9. 2023.
- Nguyen, C. Thi. “Gamification and Value Capture.” Chapter 9 in Games: Agency as Art. Oxford University Press, 2025. ISBN: 9780197815656. (Or watch his lecture on gamification: “The Gamification of Public Discourse.” YouTube.)
- Singer, Peter. “Famine, Affluence, and Morality.” Philosophy & Public Affairs 1, no. 3 (1972): 229–43.
Week 3: Decision-Making with Stakeholders in Mind
Read one of the following articles (whichever corresponds to the topic your group selected last week):
- Navigation apps: Foderaro, Lisa W. “Navigation Apps Are Turning Quiet Neighborhoods into Traffic Nightmares,” New York Times, December 24, 2017.
- Dockless scooters: Bowles, Nellie, and David Streitfeld. “Electric Scooters Are Causing Havoc. This Man Is Shrugging It Off,” New York Times, April 20, 2018.
- E-cigarettes: Creswell, Julie, and Sheila Kaplan. “How Juul Hooked a Generation on Nicotine,” New York Times, November 23, 2019.
- Bus stop shade structures: Jiménez, Jesus, and Livia Albeck-Ripka. “L.A.’s Bus Stops Need Shade. Instead, They Got La Sombrita,” New York Times, May 25, 2023.
- Deepfake Images: Conger, Kate, and John Yoon. “Explicit Deepfake Images of Taylor Swift Elude Safeguards and Swamp Social Media,” New York Times, January 26, 2024.
- Smartwatches: Epstein, Randi Hutter. “Can a Smartwatch Save Your Life?” New York Times, May 20, 2021.
- Your group may have chosen another case; if so, read that article.
Optional supplemental reading:
- Gettleman, Jeffrey. “Meant to Keep Malaria Out, Mosquito Nets Are Used to Haul Fish In,” New York Times, January 24, 2015. (And a response article: Marcus, Jake. “Putting the Problem of Bed Nets Used for Fishing In Perspective.” GiveWell. February 5, 2015.)
- Scanlon, T.M. “Contractualism and Utilitarianism.” Chapter 6 in Ethical Theory 2: Theories About How We Should Live. Edited by James Rachels. Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN: 9780198751861. (Start with section II.)
Week 4: Values in Science and Technology
Read:
- Winner, Langdon. “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” Daedalus 109, no. 1 (1980): 121–36. (Note: You can consult the following video for an overview: “Summary of ‘Do Artifacts Have Politics?’ by Langdon Winner.” YouTube.)
Watch:
Supplementary readings (optional):
- Winner, Langdon. “Technologies as Forms of Life.” Chapter 1 in The Whale and the Reactor: A Search for Limits in an Age of High Technology. University of Chicago Press, 1989. ISBN: 9780226902111. [Preview with Google Books]
- Anderson, Elizabeth. “Knowledge, Human Interests, and Objectivity in Feminist Epistemology.” Philosophical Topics 23, no. 2 (1995): 27–58.
- Daston, Lorraine, and Peter Galison. “The Image of Objectivity.” Representations 40 (1992): 81–128.
- Douglas, Heather. “Inductive Risk and Values in Science.” Philosophy of Science 67, no. 4 (2000): 559–79.
- Friedman, Batya, and Helen Nissenbaum. “Bias in Computer Systems.” ACM Transactions on Information Systems 14, no. 3 (1996): 330–47.
- Noë, Alva. “Is Science Value-Free?” NPR. September 24, 2013.
Week 5: Social Construction, Technology, and Justice
Watch:
- “From Park Bench to Lab Bench - What Kind of Future Are We Designing? | Ruha Benjamin | TEDxBaltimore.” YouTube.
Read:
- Haslanger, Sally. “Gender and Social Construction: Who? What? When? Where? How?” In Theorizing Feminisms: A Reader. Edited by Elizabeth Hackett and Sally Haslanger. Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780195150094.
Supplementary readings (optional):
- Benjamin, Ruha. “Assessing Risk, Automating Racism.” Science 366, no. 6464 (2019): 421–22.
- Barocas, Solon, and Andrew Selbst. “Big Data’s Disparate Impact.” California Law Review 104, no. 3 (2016): 671–732.
- Costanza-Chock, Sasha. Design Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build The Worlds We Need. MIT Press, 2020. ISBN: 9780262043458. [Preview with Google Books]
Week 6: Social Structures and Structural Injustice
Read:
- Young, Iris Marion. “Structure as the Subject of Justice.” Chapter 2 in Responsibility for Justice. Oxford University Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780195392388. (Read sections I and II.)
- Kasirzadeh, Atoosa. “Algorithmic Fairness and Structural Injustice: Insights from Feminist Political Philosophy.’’ In IES ‘22: Proceedings of the 2022 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society. Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York, pp. 349–56. (Read sections 2 and 3.)
OR, if in Life Science themed class, read:
- Paxton, Roger, and Maeve McKeown. “The Climate and Ecological Crisis - Responsible but Not to Blame.” British Psychological Society. June 19, 2024. (Read sections “From Moral to Political Responsibility” and “Motivating Action”.)
Supplementary readings (optional):
- Young, Iris Marion. “Responsibility and Global Justice: A Social Connection Model.” Social Philosophy and Policy 23, no. 1 (2006): 102–30.
- Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press, 2018. ISBN: 9781479849949. [Preview with Google Books]
- Eubanks, Virginia. Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. St. Martin’s Press, 2018. ISBN: 9781250074317. [Preview with Google Books]
- Hicks, Marie. Programmed Inequality: How Britain Discarded Women Technologists and Lost Its Edge in Computing. MIT Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780262035545. [Preview with Google Books]
- McIlwain, Charlton D. Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter. Oxford University Press, 2019. ISBN: 9780190863845. [Preview with Google Books]
Week 7: Responsibility and Social Roles
Read:
- Silbey, Susan. “How Not to Teach Ethics.” MIT Faculty Newsletter XXXI, no. 1 (2018).
- Werhane, Patricia. Excerpts from “Self-Interests, Roles and Some Limits to Role Morality.” Public Affairs Quarterly 12, no. 2 (1998): 221–41.
Supplementary reading (optional):
- Zheng, Robin. “What Is My Role in Changing the System? A New Model of Responsibility for Structural Injustice.” Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 21, no. 4 (2018): 869–85.
Week 8: Project Workshop
- No readings or videos assigned
Week 9: Ethics at MIT
Watch:
“Noam Chomsky - Working at MIT.” YouTube.
Read:
- Sokolove, Michael. “Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities?,” New York Times, July 3, 2019.
- “Letter to the MIT Community Regarding Engagement with Saudi Arabia.” MIT News. February 6, 2019.
- Haslanger, Sally, Kieran Setiya, et al. “Response to Professor Lester’s Report on MIT’s Involvement with Saudi Arabia.” MIT Faculty Newsletter XXXI, no. 3 (2019).
OR read:
- Eadie, Matthew, and Jenna Russell. “Police Arrest MIT Protesters After Suspensions Ramp Up Tension,” New York Times, May 9, 2024.
- Szaniszlo, Marie. “Group Blasts Feds After MIT Issued Warning over Rabbit Death,” Boston Herald, August 12, 2014.
- Andersen, Travis. “Abuse Against Monkey Reported at MIT, Animal Rights Group Says,” Boston Globe, November 20, 2024.
Supplementary reading (optional):
- Chen, Angela, and Gideon Lichfield. “Seven Dilemmas the Jeffrey Epstein Funding Scandal Creates for Universities.” MIT Technology Review, September 18, 2019.
- Haslanger, Sally. “The Problem With Philanthropy.” MIT Faculty Newsletter XXXIII, no. 2 (2020).
- Wilson, James. “On the Value of the Intellectual Commons.” Chapter 5 in New Frontiers in the Philosophy of Intellectual Property. Edited by Annabelle Lever. Cambridge University Press, 2012. ISBN: 9781139529402.
Week 10: Enacting Social Change and Living in Light of Your Values
Read:
- D’Ignazio, Catherine, and Lauren Klein. “Conclusion: Now Let’s Multiply.” In Data Feminism. MIT Press, 2020. ISBN: 9780262044004.
