Class meets live on Google Meet on Monday from 4:00 pm - 4:50 pm and on Tuesday and Thursday from 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm unless otherwise indicated. Assigned readings should be completed before class the day they are listed since most class periods will be devoted to discussion. Please make sure you understand and follow our Community Agreement for Classroom Discussions.

Note that UMD defines 1 credit hour as being equal to 3 hours of work. This is a 4 credit hour class, so in total you should expect to spend (at most!) 12 hours a week on this class. 4 hours are devoted to attending class, leaving 8 hours per week for reading, writing, etc. Please let me know if you find that you are spending more time on this class than that. 

Week 1

• Mon Aug 31 : First Day of Class. What is our Community Agreement for Classroom Discussions? Introductions.

• Tue Sept 1 : What is Ethics? What is Justice? What is Virtue? What's in our Syllabus?

• Thu Sept 3 : Read Chapter 1 of Justice. Discuss. What is a Personal Essay?

  • Note that Chapter 1 is approximately 30 pages.

Week 2

• Mon Sept 7 : [no class] Labor Day.

• Tue Sept 8 : Read Chapter 2 of Justice. Discuss. 

• Wed Sept 9 : Personal Essay #1 due by 11:59 pm. 

  • Details : Please make sure to review and understand the guidelines for Personal Essays before starting on this assignment. When you submit this assignment make sure your document is shared so that anyone with the link is an editor. If you aren't sure how to do that you can watch the following 2 minute video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6h1fYuYM4)          

  • NOTES : Create notes that lay out the details of THREE ethical dilemmas that you have personally faced in 2024 or later. Your notes should make it clear how each situation arose, what the dilemma was, the choices you faced, and the decision you made. What specific details you provide will depend on the nature of the dilemma, but be very specific about names, places, dates, etc. since that will make the dilemma more clearly yours. Your three dilemmas should be from three different parts of your life, for example, school, work, and family life. Your dilemmas should be genuine and not have an absolutely right solution, and they should also matter and not be about trivial or inconsequential decisions. You should be at the center of each dilemma and not simply reacting to what someone else has done. For example, don't use dilemmas like my friend cheated and I didn't know what to do (because your friend is the center of that dilemma). Finish your notes before moving on to your outline. Remember that your notes should be brief bullet points and not paragraphs or a rough draft.

  • OUTLINE : After you have finished your notes, pick one of your three dilemmas to focus on in your essay. This should be the dilemma that you feel is the most compelling and was the most difficult to resolve. Create an outline that captures your dilemma from start to finish using details from your notes. In addition, in your outline address why you made the decision you did and if you would make the same decision again (with the benefit of hindsight). Finish your outline before moving on to your essay. Remember that your outline should be in a traditional itemized format.    

  • ESSAY : Using your outline as a starting point, write an essay that tells an engaging story about your selected dilemma! Make sure your essay is both personal and supported with specific details. Your essay should be based on the information you have included in your outline. 

  • Privacy Notice : I will not share or discuss your submission with anyone else, nor will I upload it to AI. It will remain private with me. I am the only entity that will read or grade your essay. 

• Thur Sept 10 : Read Chapter 3 and 4 of Justice. Discuss. 

  • Note that Chapters 2, 3, and 4 total approximately 70 pages.

Week 3

• Mon Sept 14 : Read Chapter 5 of Justice. Discuss.

• Tue Sept 15 : Read Chapter 6 of Justice. Discuss.

• Thur Sept 17 : Read Chapter 7 of Justice. Discuss

  • Note that Chapters 5, 6, and 7 total approximately 80 pages.

• Sun Sept 20 : Personal Essay #2 due by 11:59 pm.

  • Details : Please make sure to review and understand the guidelines for Personal Essays before starting on this assignment. When you submit this assignment make sure your document is shared so that anyone with the link is an editor. If you aren't sure how to do that you can watch the following 2 minute video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6h1fYuYM4)          

  • NOTES : Make notes about a single specific ethical dilemma from your life that you have personally faced. This can be from any time in your life but should not be one of the three dilemmas you included in Essay 1. Your notes should make it clear how the situation arose,  what the dilemma was, the choices you faced, and the decision you made. The specific details you provide will depend on the nature of the dilemma, but be very specific about what happened, names, places, dates, etc. since that will make the dilemma more clearly yours. Your dilemma should be genuine where you are choosing from among several less than perfect solutions. Your decision should also "matter" and not be about trivial or inconsequential outcomes. You should be at the center of this dilemma and not simply reacting to what someone else has done. After you have made notes about your dilemma, make notes about the philosophical foundations that allow us to analyze ethical dilemmas that we have discussed so far in Justice. Please express these in your own words and don't include quotes from Justice. These foundations include Utilitarianism (Chapter 2), Libertarianism (Chapter 3), Kant (Chapter 5), and Rawls (Chapter 6). Your notes should include sufficient details about each foundation to allow you to use them to analyze the dilemma in your essay. Your notes should only be based on Justice. Make sure to include specific page numbers from Justice where the different pieces of information are found. Please do not use a blanket statement like all of these ideas came from Chapter X pages a - b. Instead, have specific page numbers for each fact or detail. Remember that your notes should be short bullet points and not paragraphs or a rough draft. 

  • OUTLINE : Create an outline that captures your dilemma from start to finish using details from your notes. In addition, in your outline address what motivated you to make the decision you did. Then, outline an analysis of your decision according to the one philosophical foundation that is most consistent with your motivations and then again with the one foundation that is least consistent with them. Include specific points from your notes about the foundations that support  your conclusions. Finish your outline before moving on to your essay. Remember that your outline should be in a traditional itemized format.

  • ESSAY : Write an essay that tells the story of your dilemma in an engaging fashion. You should explain the decision you made and why you made it.  Explain which philosophical foundation is most consistent with the decision you made using specific information from Justice about that foundation, and then do the same for the least consistent foundation. In both cases make sure to conclude your analysis by deciding whether your decision would be considered ethical by each of your selected foundations and why that would be the case. Based on everything you know now, would you make the same decision again, and why or why not?

  • Privacy Notice : I will not share or discuss your submission with anyone else, nor will I upload it to AI. It will remain private with me. I am the only entity that will read or grade your essay. 

Week 4

• Mon Sept 21 : Read Chapter 8 of Justice. Discuss.

• Tue Sept 22 :  Read Chapter 9 of Justice. Discuss.

• Thur Sept 24 : Read Chapter 10 of Justice. Discuss.

  • Note that Chapters 8, 9, and 10 total approximately 80 pages.

Week 5 

• Mon Sept 28 : Midterm 1 questions posted and introduced. 

• Tue Sept 29 : [no class] Work on Midterm 1.

• Thur Oct 1 : [no class] Work on Midterm 1.

• Fri Oct 2 : Midterm 1 is due by 11:59 pm. 

  • When you submit this exam make sure your document is shared so that anyone with the link is an editor. If you aren't sure how to do that you can watch the following 2 minute video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6h1fYuYM4)          

Week 6

• Mon Oct 5 : Read Introduction and Chapter 1 of Weapons of Math Destruction. Discuss.

• Tue Oct 6 : Read Chapter 2 of WMD. Discuss.

• Thur Oct 8 : Read Chapter 3 of WMD. Discuss.

  • Note that Introduction and Chapters 1, 2, 3 total approximately 70 pages.

Week 7

• Mon Oct 12 : Read Chapter 4 of WMD. Discuss.

• Tue Oct 13 : Read Chapter 5 of WMD. Discuss.

• Thur Oct 15 : Read Chapter 6 of WMD. Discuss.

  • Note that Chapters 4, 5, and 6 total approximately 55 pages.

• Sun Oct 18 : Personal Essay #3 due by 11:59 pm. 

  • Details : For this assignment reflect upon your own interactions with the online world. I'd like you to think of examples where you have used a Weapon of Math Destruction that has potentially caused you some harm. Rely on Cathy O'Neil's definition of WMDs, proxies and feedback loops. Please exclude social media from your examples. 

  • NOTES : In your notes provide information about two WMDS that you have used. For each WMD provide the name, how you used it, how much you used it, any proxies it uses, the feedback loops it uses (or creates), the harms it may have caused, and why you believe it is a WMD. These should just be notes which means they can be fairly brief and should not be sentences or a rough draft. Your goal is to collect ideas. Please be very specific throughout. 

  • OUTLINE : Once your notes are finished, make an outline by describing each element from the prompt below that you will need to address in your essay. Each item in your outline should be followed by the specific points you will make to address them. Your outline should be in a traditional itemized format and not paragraphs or a rough draft. Your goal is to organize your ideas in a way that serves as a roadmap to your essay. You should complete both your notes and outline before writing your essay. 

  • ESSAY : In your essay, describe the WMD of your two candidates which seems the most harmful or has the most impact on you and others potentially. Please describe your experiences with this WMD and how you have used it, how often you've used it, and what harms you believe it has caused. Why is it a WMD? What proxies and feedback loops does it use and/or create? Be specific throughout your essay. Your descriptions should describe your own personal experiences and not be a generic explanation of how a hypothetical person could use this WMD and be harmed. Conclude your essay by describing how this WMD could be disarmed. What would need to change about it to so it was no longer a WMD? Would it still be useful in that state? Why or why not?

  • Privacy Notice : I will not share or discuss your submission with anyone else, nor will I upload it to AI. It will remain private with me. I am the only entity that will read or grade your essay. 

  • Please make sure to review and understand the guidelines for Personal Essays before starting on this assignment. When you submit this assignment make sure your document is shared so that anyone with the link is an editor. If you aren't sure how to do that you can watch the following 2 minute video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6h1fYuYM4)          

Week 8

• Mon Oct 19 : Read Chapter 7 of WMD. Discuss.

• Tue Oct 20 : Read Chapter 8 of WMD. Discuss.

• Thur Oct 22 : Read Chapter 9 of WMD. Discuss.

  • Note that Chapters 7, 8, and 9 total approximately 55 pages.

Week 9

• Mon Oct 26 : Read Chapter 10 of WMD. Discuss. 

• Tue Oct 27 : Read Conclusion and Afterword. Discuss.

  • Note that Chapters 10, Conclusion and Afterword total approximately 50 pages.

• Thur Oct 29 : [no class] Fall Break 

Week 10

• Mon Nov 2 : Midterm 2 questions posted and introduced. 

• Tue Nov 3 : [no class] Work on Midterm 2

• Thur Nov 5 : [no class] Work on Midterm 2.

• Fri Nov 6 : Midterm 2 due by 11:59 pm.

Week 11

• Mon Nov 9 :  Start Brotopia.

• Tue Nov 10 :

• Thur Nov 12 : 

Week 12

• Mon Nov 16 : 

• Tue Nov 17 :

• Wed Nov 18 : Personal Essay #4 due. Details TBA.

• Thur Nov 19 : 

Week 13

• Mon Nov 23 : 

• Tue Nov 24 :

• Thur Nov 26 : [no class] Thanksgiving

Week 14

• Mon Nov 30 : 

• Tue Dec 1 :

• Wed Dec 2 : Podcast due by 11:59 pm.

• Thur Dec 3 : 

Week 15

• Mon Dec 7 : 

• Tue Dec 8 :

• Wed Dec 9 : Personal Essay #5 due. Details TBA.

• Thur Dec 10 : 

Final Exam 

• Thur Dec 17 : Take home exam due by 11:59 pm. This is our due date since this is the day our final exam is scheduled for.