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This seminar/practicum will invite students to ¿roll up our sleeves¿ and deliver concrete recommendations for making ethical decision-making accessible to ordinary citizens rather than just determined by corporate giants, law makers or academic experts. We will explore practical approaches to the following questions: How can we make ethical decision-making accessible to ordinary citizens in a complex world of technology, biology and even space exploration? How can we incentivize citizens to care about integrating ethics into their decision-making? How do we each have ethical power in society even where economic and technological control lie with tech giants and lodged in the brains of experts? What, if anything, is different about citizens¿ sense of moral responsibility in society today (and how has technology contributed to shifting views)? How can we develop an ethics barometer¿soliciting the views, and facilitating the influence of, ordinary citizens on key ethical questions outside of normal channels like voting and individual engagement with social media? The course will consider a number of cutting-edge topics from Covid-19 and gene editing and long-standing challenges such as racism. Highly interactive course. Very short papers and teamwork along the way in lieu of final paper or exam. 3 credits (option C/NC for students not wishing WAYS credit). Will be offered on-line Spring 2021.

Justice, as we use the term in this class, is a question about social cooperation. People can produce much more cooperatively than the sum of what they could produce as individuals, and these gains from cooperation are what makes civilization possible. But on what terms should we cooperate? How should we divide, as the philosopher John Rawls puts it, "the benefits and burdens of social cooperation"? Working primarily within the Anglo-American philosophical tradition, we'll discuss different answers to this big question as a way to bring together some of the most prominent debates in modern political philosophy. We'll study theories including utilitarianism, libertarianism, classical liberalism, and egalitarian liberalism, and we'll take on complex current issues like reparations for racial injustice, the gender pay gap, and responses to climate change. This class is meant to be an accessible entry point to political philosophy. No experience with political science or philosophy is required or assumed, and we will spend time on the strategy of philosophy as well: understanding how our authors make their arguments to better respond to them and make our own.

Public service is private action for the public good, work done by individuals and groups that aims at some vision of helping society or the world. This course examines some of the many ethical and political questions that arise in doing public service work, whether volunteering, service learning, humanitarian endeavors overseas, or public service professions such as medicine, teaching, or even "ethical investing" and "ethical entrepreneurship." What motives do people have to engage in public service work? Are self-interested motives troublesome? What is the connection between service work and justice? Should the government or schools require citizens or students to perform service work? Is mandatory service an oxymoron?

This course will explore changing notions of truth in a world in which technology, global risks, and societal developments are blurring the boundaries of humanity and boring through traditional notions of nation states, institutions, and human identity. It will also offer a parallel journey to consider truth in your own life and how truth contributes to your own resilience in the face of life challenges. We will ask one over-arching question: Does truth matter anymore? If so, why and how? If not, why not? Either way, how does truth relate to ethical decision-making by individuals and institutions and to an ethical society? How does truth relate to a life well lived? Seven themes will organize our exploration of more specific topics: science and subjectivity; identity; memory; authenticity; artificial intelligence; imagination; and a life well-lived. Examples of topics to be explored include, among others: truth and technology (from ChatGPT to home devices); white supremacy; DNA testing and the 'identify as' movement, and identity; University history (Rhodes, Georgetown slavery, Yale Calhoun College, Junipero Serra...); the connections among truth, memory, and history; new questions in gender and racial identity; Chinese beautifying app Meitu and other social media "truth modifiers"; the sharing economy; the impact of AI and DNA testing sites on legal truth. We will consider how we determine and verify the truth; how we "do" truth; the role of truth in ethical decision-making; the importance of truth to effective ethical policy; and the relationship of the truth to a life well lived. An analytically rigorous short final paper in lieu of exam. This three-credit seminar may be taken as a stand-alone course or may accompany PUBLPOL 134 Ethics on the Edge to fulfill the Public Policy major ethics requirement. The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Undergraduates will not be at a disadvantage. Everyone will be challenged. Distinguished Career Institute Fellows are welcome and should contact Dr. Susan Liautaud directly at susanliautaud@googlemail.com. Students wishing to take the course who are unable to sign up within the enrollment limit should contact Dr. Susan Liautaud at susanliautaud@googlemail.com. *Public Policy majors taking the course to complete the core requirements and students taking the course for Ways credit must obtain a letter grade. Other students may take the course for a letter grade or C/NC. To satisfy a Ways requirement, this course must be taken for at least 3 units.

( PUBLPOL 134, PUBLPOL 234 - 3 credits; Ways - ER; Same as LAW 7020) The objective of this course is to explore cutting-edge ethical challenges in a world in which technology, global risks, and societal developments are accelerating faster than our understanding and the law can keep pace. The course also offers a parallel personal journey: an opportunity to explore your own ethics and increase your own resilience when life throws challenges your way. We will unravel the ethics challenges and problem-solve across sectors: business, government, non-profit, and academia. A framework for ethical decision-making underpins the course. However, there is significant space for forming your own views on a wide range of issues. Prominent guest speakers will attend certain sessions interactively. The relationships among ethics and technology, culture, leadership, law, and global risks (AI, synthetic biology, inequality, privacy, financial system meltdown, cyber-terrorism, climate change, diversity and inclusion, etc.) will inform discussion. A broad range of topics might include: designer genetics; civilian space travel; generative AI; the Supreme Court case on University affirmative action; new wearable devices; free speech on University campuses; opioid addiction; corporate and financial sector scandals (Theranos, FTX, currency); and non-profit sector ethics challenges (e.g. medical humanitarian aid in Gaza). Final project in lieu of exam on a topic of student's choice. Attendance required. Class participation important, with multiple opportunities to earn participation credit beyond speaking in class. Strong emphasis on rigorous analysis, critical thinking, and testing ideas in real-world contexts. Note that this course will require one make-up evening session on a Wednesday or Thursday in early May in lieu of the final class session in June. Enrollment will be decided via application, which can be found at https://forms.gle/xw9bPh5wjxPZZcwf6. **The form will open on 3/6 at 5pm and close on 3/13 at 5pm.** The course offers credit toward Public Policy core requirements (if taken in combination with PUBLPOL 103F) and it satisfies the undergraduate Ways of Thinking - ER requirement. The course is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Undergraduates will not be at a disadvantage. Everyone will be challenged. Students taking the course for Ways credit and Public Policy majors taking the course to complete the core requirements must obtain a letter grade. Others may take the course for a letter grade or C/NC. Students seeking credit for other majors should consult their departments.

Examination of recent developments in computing technology and platforms through the lenses of philosophy, public policy, social science, and engineering.  Course is organized around five main units: algorithmic decision-making and bias; data privacy and civil liberties; artificial intelligence and autonomous systems; the power of private computing platforms; and issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the technology sector.  Each unit considers the promise, perils, rights, and responsibilities at play in technological developments. Prerequisite: CS106A.

This course will aim to give students a foundation in the rhetoric of health and medicine across major stakeholders researchers, government, institutions, doctors, patients, journalists, and a general public obsessed with health and wellness. For example, we will analyze key theories about the relation of institutions, doctors, and patients, from Foucault's Birth of the Clinic to Rita Charon's Narrative Medicine: Honoring the Stories of Illness. We will also investigate how patients make sense of their illnesses through art and memoirs, how doctors are trained in an empathetic bedside manner, and the rhetoric of medical breakthroughs. From this foundation, students will choose an issue to tackle in their own research projects, from the politicization of Planned Parenthood and women's healthcare, to the experience of trans patients seeking care, to the rhetoric of access vs. coverage in current debates about health insurance. Prerequisite: completion of WR-1 & WR-2 req or permission of instructor. For full description, see https://undergrad.stanford.edu/programs/pwr/courses/additional-elective-courses/rhetoric-health-and-medicine

Does not fulfill NSC requirement. In this course, we'll extend this discussion by expanding our thinking about rhetoric as a means of persuasion to consider its relation to empathy-as a mode of listening to and understanding audiences and communities we identify with as well as those whose beliefs and actions can be lethal. We'll also practice compassion medication and empathetic rhetoric to see how these ethical stances affect us individually and investigate the ways they may and may not be scaled to address social justice more broadly. Finally, with the course readings and discussions in mind, you will explore a social justice issue and create an essay, a workshop, campaign or movement strategy, podcast, vlog, infographic, Facebook group, syllabus, etc. to help move us closer to positive change. Prerequisite: first two levels of the writing requirement or equivalent transfer credit. For topics, see https://undergrad.stanford.edu/programs/pwr/courses/advanced-pwr-courses.

Pining for a job in Google X but a little afraid of what disrupting the next social system will do to humans when all is said and done? Unsure where the real conversation is happening at Stanford about how to think more carefully and thoughtfully about the tech we are being trained to make? Curious to know what underlying common ground might link fuzzies with techies, humanists with engineers, scientists with philosophers? These are some of the issues we¿ll address in this seminar. You will be able to choose your own current topic¿drones, tech and medicine, Big Data, Cloud applications, AI and consciousness, cybersecurity, tech and the law¿for which you will choose readings and write a seminar paper and then co-lead discussion. The class goals are to know better the ethical value of one¿s tech work and research and to be able to express to scientists and non-scientists alike the ways in which this work contributes to the greater human good (beyond strict convenience or short-term profit). Prerequisite: first two levels of the writing requirement or equivalent transfer credit. For topics, see https://undergrad.stanford.edu/programs/pwr/courses/advanced-pwr-courses.