PHIL 103.02/.03 Business and Computer Ethics 

Mendocino 3013, MWF 8-8:50am (section .03), MWF 9-9:50am (section .02)

Since about 1800, the world has witnessed astonishing economic growth with per capita income increasing by a factor of 10. That’s not 10 percent, that’s 10 times more bread, pens, education and whatever since 1800. For countries like Australia, Germany and the United States that have been able to take greater advantage of modern innovations, it is more like a factor of 30—or on the order of 3000%. It is the Great Enrichment and what is remarkable about the wealth explosion is that, despite the rise and fall of civilizations and empires, it had never happened before. — Deirdre McCloskey

Instructor

Kyle Swan | Department of Philosophy | California State University, Sacramento | Mendocino Hall 3030 | 6000 J Street | Sacramento, CA 95819-6033 | (916) 278-2474 | Primary contact: Canvas messaging app

Office hours

I will be available for office hours on Mondays 11am-1pm and Wednesdays 12-1:15pm in Mendocino 3030. You may also ask for an appointment outside of these times.

Reasonable Accommodation

If your circumstances require accommodation or assistance in meeting the expectations of this course, please let me know as soon as possible. You may need to provide documentation to the University office of SSWD (in accordance with the University policy outlined here: https://www.csus.edu/student-affairs/centers-programs/services-students-disabilities/).

Course Description

From the catalogue: Analytical treatment of controversial moral issues which emerge in the business world, e.g., affirmative action, corporate responsibility, the global economy, industry and environmental damage, social effects of advertising, the computer threat to personal privacy, ownership of computer programs. Discussion will focus on basic moral principles and concepts relevant to these issues.

More!

Commercial activity has been and is a source of productivity, innovation, technological advancement and wealth. It contributes to the well-being of society. One big question we will take up is how it does this.

But corporations and business leaders engaged in commercial activity also behave immorally and irresponsibly.

Ideally, we’d have more of the former and less of the latter.  This course supposes that the tools of ethical analysis can be of some help in explaining some of these problems and proposing ways to avoid them. It can, first, at a micro-level:

• Why aren’t people more morally virtuous more often? Why do morally decent people do bad things?
• What moral virtues and moral principles ground good business practices that lead to more people leading better lives?

At a macro-level the issues more concern what commercial activity would look like in a just society:

• What are the moral foundations of commercial activity and a market society? What virtues, if any, are on display in such activity? Why should we have private property and a system that allocates scarce resources with a competitive price system?
• What are the moral limits of markets? Are there some things that should not be bought or sold? Why? In what ways would commercial activity be constrained or regulated in a just society?
• Do the many and varied technological advances, including perhaps especially digital/cyber advances, raise novel moral challenges for maintaining (or securing) a just and prosperous society? 

Objectives and outcomes

By the conclusion of this course, it should be true that students (a) understand the moral and political issues that affect questions of the appropriate role of corporations in a just society and are able to (b) apply this understanding to make sense of existing social practices and institutions (c) analyze current problems and controversies and (d) evaluate proposed solutions to them. You will need to give evidence of your ability to understand, apply, analyze and evaluate in your writing and contributions to class discussions.

Phil 103 is a GE course in area D (now Subject Area 4) Area D learning outcomes are that you:

1. Describe and evaluate ethical and social values in their historical and cultural contexts.
2. Explain and apply the principles and methods of academic disciplines to the study of social and individual behavior.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the role of human diversity in human society, for example, race, ethnicity, class, age, ability/disability, sexual identity, gender and gender expression.
4. Explain and critically examine social dynamics and issues in their historical and cultural contexts.

Assessment

Please do not cheat. If you do then at a minimum you will be marked with a zero on the assignment. Multiple and/or flagrant violations will lead to me assigning a failing grade for the course and initiating disciplinary action through the Office of Student Affairs. Familiarize yourselves with the University’s Academic Honesty Policies and Procedures document (here: https://sacramentostate.policystat.com/policy/11300038/latest/).

AI Policy: I fully expect you to use AI tools, like ChatGPT, throughout this course. I will show you ways you can use these tools to understand complex texts, greatly increase the depth of your understanding of moral and political controversies, and sharpen your ability to both analyze and communicate insight about them. Keep in mind, however, that exams (which will comprise the bulk of your grade) will be rocking it old school: you with your thoughts and pen/pencil and paper. In class, I will expect you to be conversant with the readings and concepts, and prove your facility with them through various tasks, exercises, thought-questions, etc.

Electronics: I may allow you to use your phone or other device during certain class activities, but I’ll let you know. Otherwise, do not have them out. You should be present during the class mentally as well as physically.

Your final grade is determined by how many total points you earn, with these grade thresholds: 92 points=A, 90 points=A-, 88 points=B+, 82 points=B, 80 points=B-, 78 points=C+, 72 points=C, 70 points=C-, 68 points=D+, 62 points=D, 60 points=D-, and F = all scores less than 60 points.

There are these ways of earning points (see "Assignments" link):

1. Be an active and thoughtful participant in class meetings. (30 possible points)

Someone who earns all these points would:

• Demonstrate familiarity with the readings;
• Offer original and thoughtful ideas and perspectives;
• Connect with ideas from other classes or something in the broader community;
• Share relevant experiences;
• Pose good questions; and
• Take stands and defend them with references to readings and experiences.

I will assess this in a variety of ways in class throughout the semester. I may ask for a summary and/or response related to the assigned reading or some other activity or “thought question” that requires you to engage with the course material. These aren’t announced ahead of time. You’re either in class to earn the point, or you aren’t.

2. Answer questions on four in-class mid-term exams. (4 x 10 = 40 possible points)

Details will follow, but at lease some of them will have a writing or essay component. Essays that provide a philosophical analysis should generally follow the structure described here: https://www.csus.edu/college/arts-letters/philosophy/_internal/g5-how-to-analyze-a-philosophical-essay.pdf Your exam essays would be a short version of this.

The general idea is to present and elaborate the argument I ask you to evaluate, explaining how it is supposed to work in the “Summary” section. Evaluate its success, developing an argument that undermines or defends it, in the “Critique” section. Try to think of the summary section as setting out the key argument you are targeting in your thesis. It’s the argument you will analyze or evaluate in the “Critique” section of the essay. The summary should be focused on only that which is relevant to your analysis and evaluation.

You should avoid writing poor, surface-level, generic summaries. The most common way of writing a poor summary is to simply restate a number of things in the assigned reading. But I don’t want a listing of things in the reading; rather, I want you to identify the key idea in it and explain the argument(s) for that idea. Focus. Go for depth of explanation, rather than breadth of coverage. I recommend the method of successive elaboration (described here: Successive elaboration method - accessibility.pdf

Your essays should be presented legibly and relatively free of spelling and grammatical errors. I will assign marks based on the cogency of your analysis. Spelling and grammatical errors will also affect your grade if they are frequent enough to become distracting. 

3. Answer questions on a final exam based primarily on readings and classroom lectures/discussions. (30 possible points)

Schedule (see the reading list in "Modules" folder):

DATE

TOPIC/ACTIVITY

READING/ASSIGNMENT

Jan 26, 28, 30	Course overview Applying ethics is harder than you think	Syllabus Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part VI, Sec II, Ch II "Of the order in which Societies are by nature recommended to our Beneficence"
Feb 2, 4, 6, 9	Why be moral?	Smith, Theory of Moral Sentiments (excerpts) Part I, Sec I, Ch 1 "Of sympathy" Part I, Sec I, Ch IV "...Continued" Part II, Sec II, Chs I-III "Of Justice and Beneficence" Part III, Ch II "Of the love of praise..." Part III, Ch III "Of the influence of authority and conscience"
11	Is morality rational?	In class "Evolution of Trust" game
13, 16	Why do morally decent people do so many bad things?	Ariely, (Dis)honesty: the truth about lies Milgram, The perils of obedience Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, Ethical breakdowns
18	Positive-sum interactions	In class trading game
20	Green section exam
23, 25	More cooperation and positive sums	Smith, Wealth of Nations (excerpts) Ch I "Of the division of labor" Ch II "...the principle which gives occasion..." Ch III "...limited by the extent of the market" Ridley, When ideas have sex
27	The great fact -- how rich are you?	Tupy and Pooley, Superabundance (excerpt)
Mar 2, 4	But what about the AIs?	Freakonomics radio, New Tech always scares us Keynes, Economic possibilities for our grandchildren Bostrom, Deep Utopia (excerpt)
6	Purple section exam
9, 11	How do markets work? What does the price system do?	Hayek, The use of knowledge in society)
13, 16	The market as a cooperative schema	Finish/re-read Hayek
18, 20	What about "greedflation" and price gougers?	Bastiat, What is seen and what is not seen (excerpts)
23, 25, 27	Spring recess
30, Ap 1	Private property in ideas?	Posner, The law and economics of intellectual property
3	Blue section exam
6	Internet expression	Sec. 230 of The Communications Decency Act
8	Permissionless innovation	The state of nature
10	Cyber-coordination	Munger, Tomorrow 3.0 and the sharing economy
13, 15	Internet privacy	Mayes, Privacy in a transparent age
17	Surveillance capitalism	Zuboff, A digital declaration
20	Bitcoin as defense of privacy	Rettler, Philosophy and bitcoin
22, 24	Blockchain technology	Berensten and Schar, A short introduction to the world of cryptocurrencies
27, 29	BTC and climate: is it green?	Bailey, Rettler and Warmke, Resistance Money (excerpt)
1, 4, 6	Net neutrality: cui bono?	Swan, Upgrade to dance of reason prime! Becker, et al., Net neutrality and consumer welfare
8	Grey section exam
11, 13, 15	Impermissible markets?	Sandel, What money can't buy Anderson, Is women's labor a commodity? Hall, An argument for "selling" babies Brennan & Jaworski, Markets without symbolic limits
TBA	FINAL EXAM