SUNY Geneseo Department of Computer Science
Intd 105 13, Spring 2014
Prof. Doug Baldwin
Peer Critique on Thursday, February 6
Complete by Monday, February 10
Grade by Monday, February 17
An ethical theory is a philosophical foundation for answering questions and making arguments about ethics. We discussed a number of ethical theories and their applications to ethical arguments in class on January 30. This discussion was supported by a survey reading from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
A number of characters and incidents in “The Adventure of the Dancing Men” suggest questions about the ethics of using ciphers, breaking them, protecting secrets by cryptography, or exposing secrets through cryptanalysis. We briefly outlined some of these questions in class on January 23. Pick one such question, either from the class discussion or of your own, and write an essay of about 900 to 1500 words (3 to 5 pages) that explains what the question or issue is, proposes an answer to it, and defends that answer in terms of one or more ethical theories.
The obvious theories to use in your essay are ones outlined in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy article (e.g., various utilitarian theories, various duty theories, etc.). However, if you wish to use other theories, you may. If you do, however, you should cite the source(s) from which you learned about the theory or theories and include a synopsis of their key ideas in your essay.
We will do peer critiques of draft essays in class on the “Peer Critique” date above. Please bring 3 printed copies of your essay to class that day.
Turn in your finished essay by emailing it to me (baldwin@geneseo.edu). The email must be timestamped by 11:59 on the “Complete By” date above. You can write your essay using any common word processor.
Finally, I will meet face to face with each of you to discuss your essays and give you your grades. Please sign up for a half hour meeting with me, to be held some time between when you turn in your essay and the end of the day (5:00 PM) on the “Grade By” date above. You can sign up for these meetings on the schedule outside my office or via Google calendar. The schedule is divided into 15-minute blocks, so sign up by writing your name across two consecutive blocks. Beware that I have schedules for several weeks posted, so be careful that you are signing up for the day you intend.