Ethics of technology and science
The mandatory part of the course gives the required 2 credit points in ethics for TekNat students.
This is the mandatory part, September 2016.
The optional part focuses on theory and practice on technology and natural science ethics.
Start date: 28 October 2016, 13.15-15.00, room 2115 Polacks
ECTS credits: 2
Course period: 2015 - 2016
Maximum number of participants: 30
Applications: http://www.teknat.uu.se/education/postgraduate/courses/; or contact Karin Berggren Bremdal
;
Target group/s and recommended background: PhD students from all the disciplines of TekNat. No special prerequisities.
Teachers: Iordanis Kavathatzopoulos and Thomas Lennerfors
.
Administrator: Anders Persson
Course literature:
Mandatory part, 2 credits
1. Good research practice; Freedom, responsibility and universality of science
2. Papers, links, see the program bellow
Aim of course
Research within technology and science, but also implementations in for example ICT, manufacturing, environment, chemistry, energy and biology, affects individuals, organizations and societies. Progress within technology and science creates new possibilities and gives rise to new ethical issues. How these issues are treated has a decisive effect on the effectiveness, sustainability and usability of the implementations. To not consider ethics might lead to that expensive and necessary implementations are used in a sub-optimal way, that people and organizations are affected negatively when the technology is implemented, and that the workplace environment of the users and their quality of life is worsened.
To be able to address ethical aspects that influence the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementations, it is important to have knowledge and skills to work with ethical issues and tools, already under the phases of research and development. It is as important to be able to use suitable ethical tools during implementation and use phases. The course should be common to the faculty since ethical issues have a similar nature across specific areas of research. However, the differing experiences of participants from different disciplines will contribute to a broad range of examples which enhances learning for all participants.
Mandatory and optional parts
The first mandatory part, 2 credit points, focuses mainly on research ethics, and works as an introduction to the follow-up optional part.
This first mandatory part of the course will be followed by a second optional part in May 2017, 3 credit points, which expands to philosophical theory, technology and natural science ethics, and to application of different methods to handle professional ethical issues. Participation in the first mandatory part is a requirement for the second step.
Contents, study format and form of examination
The course consists of one lecture, one discussion class on ethical theory, and two seminars.
Treatment of real-life research ethics conflicts and problems by using tools to exercise ethical competence.
Mandatory course, 2cp
Program
Discussion class 03 Nov
To prepare individually before the class on 03 Nov
Read chapters 1 and 2 in Good research practice. Read also the linked texts about justice/fairness, utilitarianism, duty ethics, virtue ethics, feminist ethics, responsibility, Buddhist morality and Confucian ethics (see links above in schedule). Based on the readings, write a reflection of about 1 page (500 words) that you e-mail at the latest on 2 Nov 13.00 to ((
What is a reflection? A reflection is a very free form of text. It might consist of your general thoughts about the readings in ethical theory. It might also be focused on one theory, one aspect of a theory, a comparison between theories, your critique or support of some theory/ies, an example from research ethics that you can think about with the help of one or more theoretical concepts, how you can connect some theories with your own experiences, links between ethical theories and contemporary scientific and technological society, etc. A general hint is to write about something that interests you in relation to the readings.
In class, we will have a discussion based on your individual reflections.
Seminars
Presentations, group work
For each seminar you need to prepare a ten-minute presentation and a corresponding number of slides.
The slides have to be uploaded here on the program table before the seminars. Upload them here yourself or if you cannot do this e-mail them to Anders, ((
In the seminars your group presents the problem to the class, 5 min. Then this problem is discussed in small groups of students, 5 min. The group presents its solution and the arguments for this, 5 min. Open discussion in the class, 10 min.
Seminar I: General research ethics. Prepare in your group a presentation based on the literature referred in the program table, and you upload it on this website. Each group focus on an issue related to a chapter in Good research practice. The theme of this presentation should be an ethical analysis using the OLE questionnaire, OLE, of a problem related to ONE specific "internal" research issues of ethics, which appears in the chapter that you are assigned to read. For example, ethical problems of publishing, plagiarism, supervising, authorship, funding, career, copyright, fraud, handling of research data, quality of research, codices and guidelines, etc.
Seminar II: Field specific research ethics. You identify a moral problem that you feel is important and relevant for your area of research activity. For example a moral problem related to privacy, environment, application of research findings, intellectual property, human life, using of laboratory animals, security, impact on society.
Each group chooses any ethical problem related to their areas of research. Describe the problem, identify the problem owner and state the problem, often including a moral dilemma, as a question that has more than one answer. Use the Autonomy Matrix method AM to analyze the problem. Prepare your group presentation based on this analysis.
Use any problem that feels important to you. If you have a real problem it is much better. Each group chooses any ethical problem related to their special area of research.
The analysis should help you to reach the best possible solution to your problem.
Examination
Active and mandatory participation in the first lecture, the discussion class, in group seminars and in the group work. Individual home exam.
The home exam consists of a few questions based on course literature, lectures and seminars. The exam questions can be found here. Each answer minimum 500 words.
Furthermore, each student writes an essay (2 pages, 1000 words) reflecting on ethics in one's own situation as a PhD student (e.g. the ethical nature of the research project as such, the field of research one is in, ethical issues arising in the division, research group, relations to supervisors and colleagues, etc), based on what has been learned during the course and the discussions in the seminars.
If you intend to participate in the follow-up optional ethics course you do not need to submit the home exam (questions and essay).
Send your exam, both essay and answers to the questions, as pdf to: ((
Deadline: Mon, 05 Dec 2016, 23:59.
Evaluation
The course will be evaluated by the participants. Link will be added here, and you will be notified by email.
Participants and Groups
Group 1
Seminar I: Chapter 3
Oladunjoye Awoga, oladunjoye.awoga@physics.uu.se
Anirban Bhattacharyya, anirban.bhattacharyya@physics.uu.se
Xinyi Chen Lin, xinyitsenlin@gmail.com
Felix Massel, felix.massel@physics.uu.se
Lam Doan Duc, lam.doan@physics.uu.se
Group 2
Seminar I: Chapter 4
Patrice Godonou, patrice.godonou@angstrom.uu.se
Magnus Hedlund, magnus.hedlund@angstrom.uu.se
Simon Thomas, simon.thomas@angstrom.uu.se
Jun Luo, jun.luo@angstrom.uu.se
Per Ribbing, per.ribbing@angstrom.uu.se
Group 3
Seminar I: Chapter 5
Kristin Conrady, kristina.conrady@geo.uu.se
Albin Nordström, albin.nordstrom@geo.uu.se
Linus Söderquist, linus.soderquist@ebc.uu.se
Lei Liu, lei.liu@geo.uu.se
Anke Bender, anke.bender@angstrom.uu.se
Group 4
Seminar I: Chapter 6
Maria Vall, maria.vall@angstrom.uu.se
Tobias Warnatz, tobias.warnatz@physics.uu.se
Mia Sterby, mia.sterby@angstrom.uu.se
Jiaojiao Yang, jiaojiao.yang@angstrom.uu.se
Rui Sun, rui.sun@angstrom.uu.se
Group 5
Seminar I: Chapter 7
Gao Yuan, gaoyuankidult@gmail.com
Fayiq Alghamdi, fayiq.alghamdi@it.uu.se
Kim-An Tran, kim-anh.tran@it.uu.se
Miran Nadir, miran.nadir@it.uu.se
Charalampos Orfanidis, charalampos.orfanidis@it.uu.se
Group 6
Seminar I: Chapter 8
Muhammad Anwar Shameem, muhammad.anwar@kemi.uu.se
Xingxing Xu, xingxing.xu@angstrom.uu.se
Daniah Tahir, daniah.tahir@math.uu.se
Erik Thörnblad, erik.thornblad@math.uu.se