ES3: Basic Skills of Social Analysis

Five basic skills of ethical analysis that will help the computer science student to apply ethics in their technical work are: 1) arguing from example, analogy, and counter-example, 2) identifying stakeholders in concrete situations 3) identifying ethical issues in concrete situations, 4) applying ethical codes to concrete situations, and 5) identifying and evaluating alternative courses of action. Since these are basic tools of ethical reasoning, computing professionals need practice in using them in relationship to technical issues. These skills should be introduced in an ethics module early in the curriculum and students should be given enough time to move from their own intuition, to specific reasons, to concrete cases and back again in intense discussions with other students and faculty. These skills should then be used in subsequent technical courses with case studies and design exercises.

Recurring Concepts:

h3>Lecture topics: (3 hours):

• ES3.1 Arguing from example, analogy, and counter-example.
• ES3.2 Identifying stakeholders in concrete situations.
• ES3.3 Identifying ethical issues in concrete situations.
• ES3.4 Applying ethical codes to concrete situations.
• ES3.5 Identifying and evaluating possible courses of action.

Suggested laboratories (5 hours)

Connections:

Prerequisites: a semester of computer programming