EGR 390
Science, Technology, and Ethics
Professor Donna Riley
Picker Engineering Program
Smith College
Who decides how science and engineering are done, who can participate in the scientific enterprise, and
what problems are legitimately addressed within these disciplines and professions? Under what conditions
has science aided and abetted racist or colonialist research projects? What are the roles of technology,
culture, and economic systems in the drive toward bigger, faster, cheaper, and more automated
production of goods, and what are the consequences for human relationships and for the environment?
When technology provides means for control, for example in military, information, reproductive or
environmental applications, what rights and responsibilities follow? Using readings from philosophy,
science and technology studies, and feminist and postcolonial science studies, we will examine such
questions and encounter new models of science and engineering that are responsive to ethical issues.
Objectives: Students receiving a passing grade in this class shall be able to:
•
Think critically about science, technology, and ethics, identifying and analyzing a variety of ethics
problems.
•
Lead insightful discussions on science, technology, and ethics topics.
•
Conduct original research into a topic in science, technology, and ethics.
•
Effectively communicate in oral and written forms the findings of original research on science,
technology and ethics.
•
Explain the complex relationships among science, technology, and ethics in current social contexts,
and how these contexts inform and influence social choices about science, technology, and ethics.
•
Act creatively and reflectively in the world to address science, technology, and ethics.
•
Assess and direct your own learning, and reflect on that process.
Evaluation: (subject to change per self-directed learning proposal)
70% Papers
30% 2 Action-essays – one on science and objectivity, one case study exploring 3 distinct approaches
(5 pages double spaced, 15% each)
40% Research paper – proposal & annotated bibliography (5%), outline (5%), draft (10%), final
(20%) (20 pages double spaced)
30% Participation
10% Self-directed learning proposal and end of semester reflection (5% each)
10% Leading creative class activities (in pairs, 3-4 times during the semester)
10% Preparation (reading questions and notes)
Date
Material covered
Class Learning objectives
Week 1
Intro to course themes
Watch Film: Fast, Cheap and
out of Control Part I
9/9
Intro to course themes
9/11
Questioning Objectivity of
Science & Technology
Watch Film: Part II
Discuss Film, Johnson
Discuss Winner, Harding, and
Martin
9/4
Preparation expected
Work due
Week 2
Read Jaehne, Johnson &
Wetmore
Read Winner, Harding, Martin
Self-Directed Learning
Proposal
Week 3
9/16
9/18
Questioning Objectivity
Ethics Approaches
Read Weston, Warren, Catalano
Week 4
9/23
Ethics Approaches
9/25
Funding and Practice of
Science and Technology
Read McCutchen, Geiger,
Downey
Term Paper Proposal &
Annot. Bibliography
Week 5
9/30
Technology and Control:
Information Technology
Student-led
Read Nissenbaum, Parsell
10/2
Work on Research Topic
10/7
Research Help Session Bass 103
Week 6
10/9
Technology and Control:
Information Technology
Student-led
Read Kuflik, Galloway
Week 7
FALL BREAK
10/14
10/16
Technology and Control:
Military Technology
Student-led
Read Hagen, Gillespie
Week 8
10/21
10/23
Technology and Control:
Reproductive Technology
Technology and Control:
Environmental Technology
Student-led
Read Tremain, Purdy, Garry
Student-led
Read Lockwood, Katz
Action Essay:
Objectivity
Week 9
10/28
10/31
Science & Social Inequality:
Cultures of Injustice
Science & Social Inequality:
Cultures of Injustice
Student-led
Read Frehill, Subramaniam
Student-led
Read Walton, Harding
Term Paper Outline &
Revised Bibliography
Week 10
11/4
Science and Social
Inequality: Racist Projects
11/6
Student-led
Read Jones
Otelia Cromwell Day
Week 11
11/11
11/13
Science and Social
Inequality: Racist Projects
Technology and
Consumerism: Fast
Student-led
Read Proctor, Schweitzer
Student-led
Read Schlosser, Slade
Action Essay:
Case Study
Week 12
11/18
11/20
Technology and
Consumerism: Privatized
Technology and
Consumerism: Globalized
Student-led
Read Bollier
Student-led
Read Mashelkar, Shiva
Dissent
Student-led
Week 13
11/25
Read vonHippel, Nader,
websites of local citizen groups
Term Paper draft with
abstract
THANKSGIVING BREAK
11/27
Week 14
12/2
Feminist Re-visioning
Student-led
Read Weasel, Barad
12/4
Term Papers
Student Presentations
Read Abstracts
12/9
Engineering, Social Justice, Student-led
and Peace
Wrap-Up and review
End of Course survey
Week 15
12/11
Read Vesilind, Catalano, Riley
Self-directed Learning
Reflection
Finals Week
12/19
Term Paper
Readings List
Introduction
Jaehne, K. Fast Cheap and out of Control. Film Quarterly 52(3): 43-47. 1999.
Johnson, D.G. and Wetmore, J. STS and Ethics: Implications for Engineering Ethics. Technology & Society:
Building our Sociotechnical Future (MIT Press, forthcoming).
Science and Objectivity
Winner, L. Do artifacts have politics? The Whale and the Reactor. University of Chicago Press, 1986. pp. 1939.
Harding, S. The Political Unconscious of Western Science. Science and Social Inequality: Feminist and
postcolonial issues. University of Illinois Press, 2006. pp 113-132.
Martin, E. 1991. "The Egg and the Sperm: How Science Has Constructed a Romance Based on Stereotypical
Male-Female Roles" Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 16 (3):485-501.
Some approaches to ethics
Warren, K. Ethics in a Fruit Bowl. Ecofeminist Philosophy, New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. 97-123.
Catalano, G.D. Engineering Ethics: Peace, Justice, and the Earth. Morgan and Claypool, 2006. 13-22.
Weston, A. “Practical Ethics in a New Key” and “Pragmatic Attitudes.” Toward Better Problems: New
Perspectives on Abortion, Animal rights, the Environment, and Justice. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 1992.
The Funding and Practice of Academic Science and Technology
McCutchen, C.W. “Peer Review: Treacherous Servant, Disastrous Master” Technology Review (October
1991): 27-40.
Geiger, R. Science, Universities, and National Defense, 1945-1970. OSIRIS, 2nd series, 1992, 7: 26-48.
Downey, G.L. (2007) Low Cost, Mass Use: American Engineers and the Metrics of Progress. History and
Technology, 23(3): 289-308.
Technology and Control Part 1: Information Technologies
H. Nissenbaum, Privacy as Contextual Integrity, Washington Law Review, v79 #1, February 04, 2004. 119-158.
Parsell, M. Pernicious virtual communities: Identity, polarization and the Web 2.0. Ethics and Information
Technology. (2008). Galloway, A.R. Playing the Code: Allegories of Control in Civilization. Radical
Philosophy, 128: 33-40 (2004).
Kuflik, A. Computers in Control: Rational Transfer of Authority or Irresponsible Abdication of Autonomy?
Ethics and Information Technology 1(3): 173-184.
Technology and Control Part 2: Military Technologies
Hagen, R. (Un-) Peaceful use of space. 13th General Assembly of the International Association of Peace
Messenger Cities: "Peace, Poverty, Racism: the Role of the Cities." City of Oswiecim (Poland) September 3, 2000. Later published as War and Peace in Space, The Spokesman 70: 34-43.
Gillespie, C. and Alder, K. Engineering the Revolution. Technology and Culture 39, No. 4 (Oct., 1998), pp.
733-754
Technology and Control Part 3: Reproductive Technologies
Tremain, S. Reproductive Freedom, Self-Regulation, and the Government of Impairment in Utero. Hypatia,
21(1): 35-53 (2006).
Purdy, L.M. Medicalization, medical necessity, and feminist medicine. Bioethics 15(3): 248-261. (2001)
Garry, A. Medicine and Medicalization: A Response to Purdy. Bioethics 15(3): 262-269. (2001)
Technology and Control Part 4: Environmental Technologies
Lockwood, J.A. The Ethics of Biological Control: Understanding the Moral Implications of Our Most Powerful
Ecological Technology, Agriculture and Human Values 13(1): 2-19 (1996).
Katz, E. The Call of the Wild, Environmental Ethics, 14(3): 265-274 (1992).
Science and Social Inequality: Cultures of Injustice
Frehill, L.M. The Gendered Construction of the Engineering Profession in the United States, 1893-1920, Men
and Masculinities 6 (4): 383-403 (2004).
Walton, A. Technology vs. African-Americans, Atlantic Monthly, January 1999, 14-18.
Subramaniam, B. "Snow Brown and the Seven Detergents: A Meta-Narrative on Science and the Scientific
Method." Women's Studies Quarterly. Vol. 28. Nos. 1&2, Spring/Summer 2000.
Harding, S. “Thinking about Race and Science,” Science and Social Inequality: Feminist and postcolonial
issues. University of Illinois Press, 2006. pp. 17-30.
Science and Social Inequality: Racist Projects
Proctor, R. Political Biology: Doctors in the Nazi cause, Racial Hygiene: Medicine under the Nazis. Harvard
University Press, 2006. pp. 64- 94
Jones, Bad Blood: The Tuskeegee Syphilis Experiment. Free Press, 1993. pp 1-15, 61-77, 206-219
Schweitzer, S. Issues of body, spirit snarl return of Narragansett remains. Boston Globe, December 20, 2004.
Materialism: Fast, Privatized, Globalized
Schlosser, E. “Speedee Service,” “Throughput,” “Stroking,” and “Food Product Design,” Fast Food Nation,
HarperCollins, 2002, pp. 18-21, 67-71, 71-75, and 119-129.
Slade, G. Made to break: technology and obsolescence in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2006. 29-55, 261-281.
Bollier, D. Silent Theft: The private plunder of our common wealth. Routledge, 2003. 15-25, 69-84, 119-134.
Mashelkar, R.A. Intellectual property rights and the Third World. Current Science, 81(8):955-965 (2001).
www.ias.ac.in/currsci/oct252001/955.pdf
Shiva, V. The World Bank, WTO, and Corporate Control over Water. Water Wars, South End Press, 2002. pp.
87-105.
Dissent
vonHippel, F. Advice and Dissent, Citizen Scientist. Touchstone, 1991. pp.3-15, 30-54.
Nader, R. Preface and The Engineers, Unsafe at Any Speed, New York: Grossman, 1972, pp. lxxxix-xciii, 170209.
New Feminist Visions
Barad, K. "Scientific Literacy -> Agential Literacy = (Learning + Doing) Science Responsibly," in Feminist
Science Studies: A New Generation, edited by Maralee Mayberry, Banu Subramaniam, and Lisa
Weasel. NY: Routledge Press. (Abridged version of article published in Doing Culture + Science),
2001.226-246.
Weasel, L. “Laboratories without Walls: The science shop as a model for feminist community science in
action.” in Feminist Science Studies: A New Generation, edited by Maralee Mayberry, Banu
Subramaniam, and Lisa Weasel. NY: Routledge Press, 2001. 305-320.
Engineering, Social Justice, and Peace
Vesilind, P. Aarne (2005). The Evolution of Peace Engineering. In Peace Engineering: When Personal Values
and Engineering Careers Converge. A. Vesilind, ed. Lakeshore Press: Woodsville, NH, 1-12.
Catalano, G.D. Engineering Ethics: Peace, Justice, and the Earth. Morgan and Claypool, 2006. 33-54.
Riley, D. Engineering and Social Justice. Morgan and Claypool, 2008.