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//****************** Exam 2 Review - December 2nd, 2019 *********************//
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- Okay, it's the last class!
- The final is taking place THIS FRIDAY, December 6th, in this room at 11:20am
- The exam will be NON-CUMULATIVE, and'll be a similar format and length as the midterms (i.e.a mix of multiple-choice and short, 2-3 sentence answers)
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- With that, let's start going over what'll be on the 2nd exam!
- First up, stuff from ALBERT BORGMANN, including:
- Borgmann was this philosopher of technology
- DEVICE PARADIGMS were probably his most important idea
- Machinery vs commodity
- Paradigmatic Consumption (in that article we read)
- Focal things / Practices
- General philosophy of technology stuff, like technological determinism, utopianism, dystopianism, and instrumentalism
- "This is honestly some of the hardest stuff we covered, in part because it was just so darn long ago"
- We then talked about another tech philosopher, DON IHDE
- He's a "phenomenologist" - what's that?
- "Prognostic predicament"
- Multistability (what is it? Why does he mention it?)
- He also talked about 3 ways people approach technology, which we talked about in lecture:
- Embodiment relationships
- Hermeneutic relationships
- Alterity relationships
- Also mentioned: psychological impediments to ethical thinking for engineers!
- The Problem of Many Hands
- Blind spots (a few different types)
- Normalizing deviance
- Egoism / egocentrism
- Microscopic vision
- Uncritical deference to authority (Stanley Milgram)
- Groupthink
- "These really lend themselves to test questions; I mean, it's a bunch of technical terms!"
- We talked about organizations and management stuff
- How can engineers and managers come into conflict? What are their different loyalties/commitments?
- What about WHISTLEBLOWING?
- What does it mean, technically?
- What are the 2 justifications for whistleblowing (i.e. harm-prevention and complicity-avoiding)?
- We then moved on to the CHALLENGER DISASTER!
- What happened here? What's the general story?
- Don't forget there are 2 parts: the event itself, and then the investigation
- Who/what was involved, particularly in the investigation into the disaster?
- Who's Boisjoly? Was he a whistleblower?
- What's Harry Collins' take?
- What did Feynman do?
- There was a chapter on HONESTY
- Why is it wrong to tell lies from utilitarian, deontological, and virtue-based positions?
- What kinds of dishonesty are there BESIDES just lie-telling?
- Intellectual property - what kinds are there?
- Dishonesty in research - what are its different forms? (e.g. plagiarism, ways of spoofing the data, etc.)
- Conflicts of interest: what are these, how can they arise, and how can we avoid them?
- This is one of the most practical, important ideas from this unit; "it's the standard-of-care of this half of the semester"
- There was a chapter on EXPERTISE
- What did we cover on the lecture here?
- What's the tension between "expertise" and "democracy?"
- What does the book say about being an expert witness?
- What does Collins say about "interactional expertise"?
- ...and another one on RISK
- How does the textbook say engineering vs public ideas of risk differ?
- What are the "utilitarian" and "capabilities" approach to risk?
- What's required for "informed consent?"
- Perrow's concept of "normal accidents" (as well as what the book says about them)
- Schrader-Frechette's article about nuclear waste
- Liability: how does this differ between "tort law" and "criminal law?"
- Penultimately, there's the ENVIRONMENT
- What's the U.S. government's goal for environmental law right now?
- What kinds of attitudes can companies take toward regulation?
- Anthropocentrism vs ecocentrism
- What kinds of cleanliness accounts are there?
- What's sustainability?
- Who's Rachel Carson?
- And, lastly, INTERNATIONAL ENGINEERING
- Absolutist vs relativist approaches
- What're the book's 6 suggestions for tackling boundary-crossing problems?
- What are "boundary-crossing" problems?
- What KINDS of boundary-crossing problems does the book name?
- "These are SUPER important and'll definitely appear, so look at them!"
- Also, know the cases you read for recitation! They might make an appearance!
- So, that's what we covered! Before you go...
- The School of Public Policy offers a minor in Philosophy - consider taking that!
- Also, please fill out the CIOS course evaluation! It helps me, and I thank you in advance!
- "...I mean, I have tenure, so you're not going to get me fired, but I do read them and adjust my class, and my bosses read them to evaluate me as a teacher"
- In particular, if you know a professor who isn't tenured yet, fill out the CIOS! Those actually matter for them getting tenured!
- And with that, we'll end a bit early today - see you for the final!