The student will be able to analyse texts (contexts, summaries, critiques) and situations (actors, issues, problems), to pose ethical problems (concepts, tensions, perspectives) and to imagine practical responses (actions, institutions, limits).
The course focuses on ethical issues that may be encountered by computer science students, later or now, in their daily practice. The course has three main objectives -- each of which corresponds to a section. First, to expose students to a series of situations, documented by historians of technology, where technical systems have posed a series of ethical problems. Secondly, to equip students with some of the fundamental notions of ethics so that they can better think and act in those situations where the issues arise, especially from concepts of contemporary ethics and political philosophy. Thirdly: to lead students to reflect, in depth, on some of the ethical problems specifically posed by computer systems, their contemporary developments, computer-related professional practices, and their political and social impacts.
Assessment is based on written assignments (individual and group) and oral presentations on the one hand, and an individual oral examination on the course material and texts on the other.
| Training | Study programme | Block | Credits | Mandatory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Master 120 en sciences informatiques, à finalité spécialisée en software engineering | Standard | 0 | 5 | |
| Master 60 en sciences informatiques | Standard | 0 | 5 | |
| Master 120 en sciences informatiques, à finalité spécialisée en data science | Standard | 0 | 5 | |
| Master 60 en sciences informatiques | Standard | 1 | 5 | |
| Master 120 en sciences informatiques, à finalité spécialisée en data science | Standard | 1 | 5 | |
| Master 120 en sciences informatiques, à finalité spécialisée en software engineering | Standard | 1 | 5 |