Business Ethics, Science and Technology (Elective Course)

Instructor: Tim Fort (No longer at Michigan; now at George Washington University)
“This course will provide a normative foundation for analyzing the ethical issues arising from thecommercialization of advances in science and technology. The course will begin with a typologicalframework assessing how ethical analysis can critique, follow, stand separate from or be integratedwith scientific knowledge and technological advances. The course will then focus on topical issues.The specific issue will vary from offering to offering as new cases arise, but the cases will be drawnfrom life sciences issues (such as Genetically Modified foods and application of Human Genomeknowledge), ecological issues (such as distribution of water resources and environmentalstewardship), Internet and computer-related issues (such as the difficulties in applying moral andlegal rules in borderless environments), chemistry-rooted issues (such as artificial intelligence and thecommercialization of outerspace).”