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This course considers some of the significant normative ethical theories in the history of moral philosophy and examines how their principles may be applied to ethical issues of practical concern. There is a wide range of topics that are typically understood to come under the category of applied ethics. This course will focus on the ethics of effective altruism, animal welfare, self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence, killer robots, social media, and issues in environmental ethics.
This is a textbook introducing ethical issues associated with a broad array of emerging technologies, including genetic engineering, sex selection, reproductive assistance technologies, nanomedicine, stem cell research, neurotechnologies, human enhancement technologies, robotics, artificial intelligence, surveillance technologies, virtual reality, reoengineering, synthetic meat, genetically modified crops and animal, synthetic biology, and artificial life. The Introduction includes an overview of common themes in the ethics of technology, provides a primer on ethical theory and value terminology, and proposes a set of critical perspectives from which novel technologies can be evaluated. Part One are general reflections on ethics of technology, and the remaining parts are structured around uses of technology and particular technology types.
This anthology collects 55 excerpts by influential thinkers who have contributed to the topic of philosophy of technology. There are six parts in this book. Part One looks into the historical background of contemporary philosophy of technology. Part Two presents contemporary readings that critically assess the assumptions from the nineteenth century of the relationship between philosophy and technology. Part Three examines recent efforts that define technology. Part Four presents Martin Heidegger’s essay and five essays in response. Part Five concerns with the relationship between human and nature. Part Six reviews issues when technology is viewed as defining a specific and dominant kind of social practice.
This book examines the most pivotal ethical questions around our use of technology. The chapters are conveniently organized into five parts: Perspectives on Technology and its Value; Technology and the Good Life; Computer and Information Technology; Technology and Business; Biotechnologies and the Ethics of Enhancement. The book explores throughout a central tension raised by technological progress: maintaining social stability vs. pursuing dynamic social improvements. A hallmark of the volume is multidisciplinary contributions both (1) in "analytic" and "continental" philosophies and (2) across several hot-button topics of interest to students, including the ethics of autonomous vehicles, psychotherapeutic phone apps, and bio-enhancement of cognition and in sports.
This book is a moral reflection on the subject of “justice”. Both classical philosophical considerations by utilitarianism, libertarianism, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls and Aristotle, as well as contemporary political controversies such as abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, patriotism, dissent and affirmative action, are refreshingly examined and discussed. Michael Sandel argues that justice involves cultivating virtue and reasoning about the common good, prospects a new politics of the common good, and eventually reveals how an understanding of philosophy can help to make sense of politics, religion, morality - and our own convictions.
This is the third edition of Peter Singer’s Practical Ethics, a classic introduction to applied ethics. Questions discussed in this book include rich and poor, killing animals and humans, equality and discrimination on the grounds of race or sex, abortion, the use of embryos for research, and euthanasia, political violence and terrorism, and the preservation of our planet’s environment. Singer argues that people should act morally, but he also thinks that people will probably always need the sanctions of the law and social pressure to provide additional reasons against serious violations of ethical standards.
