ANU-PAAE8005:Ethics and IT

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

The new computer and information technologies raise numerous ethical issues. The ethical issues themselves are not new, and in many cases have been discussed in a formal and rigorous way at least since the time of the ancient Greeks. But new technologies raise these issues in novel ways, and in some cases make them much more urgent that they were in the past. One aim of this subject is to show where some of these ethical problems lie. The other, and perhaps the more important aim, is to demonstrate how philosophical theory and argumentation can contribute to developing solutions to these problems. As a consequence, the unit looks at both philosophical arguments and theories and at the particular contexts in which new computer and information technologies raise ethical problems. Topics covered include the philosophy of technology as it relates to computer technologies, privacy and data protection, intellectual property and the Internet, social interaction in cyberspace, artificial intelligences and cyborgs.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.