Assignment #1: Sept. 5
Read Chapter #1 of Textbook.
Read Bebeau's Essay for Students
Optional Reading: Bebeau's Essay for Faculty
Locate at least one new, relatively uncrowded computer center
that would be convenient for use between classes.
http://stcweb.uits.indiana.edu/apps/public/tour.cfm
Assignment #2: Sept. 10
Read Chapters #3, 5, 6 in Textbook, forming opinions about each case as you
go along. Pay special attention to any general points about research ethics
that are made in the chapters. (For example, the role of casuistry.)
(You will be assigned one or more cases to study carefully before class meets.
Here's what you should do to prepare for your special discussion role for
your assigned case: (1) Think about how you can summarize the gist of the case
quickly for your classmates, who will have already read it, but who may not
remember it by the time class meets. (2) Think about all the points that you
think should be made in the course of a full discussion of this case. (3) Read
any discussion relevant to your case that appears in the back of our textbook
in a Section called Instructional Notes.
Assignment #3: Sept. 12
Read a standard textbook account of Millikan's Nobel Prize winning oil drop experiment
whereby he measured the charge of the electron. Here is a suitable one from the web:
http://www.mdclearhills.ab.ca/millikan/experiment.html
Read philosopher of science Doug Allchin's analysis of whether fraud was involved:
http://www1.umn.edu/ships/updates/fraud.htm
Optional Reading: an analysis of explanations of Mendel's data
which were too perfect:
http://www.nih.gov/about/director/ebiomed/mendel.htm
Assignment #4: Sept. 17
Read Chapters #17 in the Textbook and be prepared to point out
any errors in the student's interpretation of the historical
document. In the Instructional Notes, pp. 226-9 of the Textbook,
the author of this case presents his/her analysis of the student's
essay. I find some of the author's objections a bit off-base and
you should also feel free to disagree! Each of you will be assigned
one point from the Instructional Notes to discuss in class: What
does the author of the Instructional Notes think about the particular
sentence in the student's essay? What do you think about that
particular sentence?
Read the two highlighted articles about "Holocaust Deniers" at the
website below. Read Siano's book review first and then look through
Miele's longer article:
http://www.skeptic.com/02.4.contents.html
Assignment #5: Sept. 19
Read the introductory page and case 1 of Chapter #16 in the Textbook
and be prepared to discuss the questions which follow, especially
#3, 7, and 12. (I'm not sure why they label this section a "case"
but nevermind!)
Read about the Ambrose case at:
http://www.forbes.com/2002/01/17/0117ambrose.html
and
http://www.forbes.com/2002/01/17/0117ambrose_2.html
For an interesting defense of certain kinds of borrowing
read:
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/04/posner.htm
Optional: Browse Stephen Ambrose's home page:
http://www.stephenambrose.com/
Assignment #6: Sept. 24
Send me by e-mail (koertge@indiana.edu) a short description of the case/topic you
have chosen to write on for Essay #1. Please do this before class so that if we need
to discuss it, I can catch you there!
Assignment #7: Sept. 26
Turn in Essay #1, following the posted instructions.
There were no assigned readings but in class I discussed briefly the notorious Tuskegee
Study. If you decide to write an essay on this case, consult the following web sources:
For a short overview of the study and contemporary reaction to it see:
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jul/tuskegee/index.html
The ethical problems with this study are pretty clear. Here is one summary of them:
http://showme.missouri.edu/~socbrent/tuskegee.htm
What is more difficult is to understand why the experiment was ever done in the first
place. The following posters give us a feel for how much sypilis was feared:
http://radio.cbc.ca/programs/ideas/Aids/aidspix1.html
Here is a report written by the researchers themselves. Note who the first
author is!
http://www.dc.peachnet.edu/~shale/humanities/composition/assignments/experiment/rivers.html
Finally, here is an attempt by one of the participants to defend what
was done:
http://www.emorylies.com/Olansky.htm
Assignment #8: Oct. 1
Read Chapter 10 including all of the Questions for Discussion. Prepare to discuss Question #1.
Read the Guidelines on pp.221 - 2 and Chapters 11 and 12, concentrating on the introductory
materials. Individual students will be assigned the little cases. Students who are assigned a
case should also read the Instructional Notes pertaining to their case in the back of the textbook.
Assignment #9: Oct. 3
Read the articles at the following web sites and be prepared to discuss them:
a) Stanley Milgram's own account of his controversial research:
http://home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.htm
b) Two discussions of Milgram's research:
http://www.puaf.umd.edu/IPPP/Winter-Spring00/authority_and_excuses.htm
http://www.cll.wayne.edu/isp/mnissani/PAGEPUB/Milgram.htm
Assignment #10: Oct. 8
Read Introductions and Background sections of Chapters 14 and 15. Prepare to
discuss the case you were assigned. (Remember that you will only do "half" of the case.)
Browse the website of the Bloomington Campus Committee for the Protection of
Human Subjects:
http://www.indiana.edu/~resrisk/hmpg.html
Prepare to discuss the pages you were assigned. (Someone else was
assigned the same pages.)
Assignment #11: Oct. 10
Prepare to discuss the scientific and ethical aspects of the Stanford Prison Experiment
conducted by Zimbardo and his colleagues by using the following web sites:
An overview can be found at: http://www.geocities.com/futileattempt_1999/zimbardo.html
A brief account of how the experiment ended appears at:
http://www2.stanford.edu/dept/news/relaged/970108prisonexp.html
A full account of the experiment using 40 slides and video clips is available at:
http://www.prisonexp.org/
Assignment #12: Oct. 15
Start working on Essay #2. In class I will be discussing ethical problems that come
when anthropologists, folklorists, and oral historians do field work and describe
briefly Judith Neulander's study of so-called Crypto Jews living in the Southwest.
Here are some links to learn more about these topics. For the formal codes, see the first
few links at: http://www.usu.edu/vpr/policies/irb/ethics.asp
For a general introduction see: http://bombaci.rootsweb.com/abe/crypto-jews.html
An example of Stanley Hordes perspective is at:
http://www.oaoa.com/religionpage/religinpager56.htm
The three-part Atlantic Monthly article which spells out Judith Neulander's perspective
as well as earlier studies by Raphael Patai is at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/12/ferry.htm
Assignment #13: Oct. 17 Essay #2 due!
Follow this link for detailed instructions. Basically I ask you to choose one
of the following cases to analyze in your essay: Tuskegee, Milgram, Zimbardo,
Neulander. You will also need to be familiar with the requirements of the
Bloomington IRB.
You can find more information about Kohlberg's theory of the development of moral reasoning at:
Kohlberg's article in Psychology Today.
My brief remarks about philosophical theories of ethical decision making can be supplemented
with Chapter 2, "An Introduction to Ethical Theory." in your textbook.
Assignment #14: Oct. 22
Read the introductory sections and Case Notes at the end of Chapters 7 and 8.
Prepare to discuss your case with the class. Use the questions in the book as a basis
for bringing up interesting aspects of the case or introducing new ways of looking at it.
Assignment #15: Oct. 24
Read the introduction and Case Notes for Chapter 9. Also quickly read the current IUCAC regulations.
Read carefully the Pro and Con articles concerning the Ethics of Animal
Research published in the February, 1997 issue of Scientific American (you
may need to scroll down to get to the text of the article):
THE BENEFITS AND ETHICS OF ANIMAL RESEARCH
ANIMAL RESEARCH IS WASTEFUL AND MISLEADING
ANIMAL RESEARCH IS VITAL TO MEDICINE
TRENDS IN ANIMAL RESEARCH
Assignment #16: Oct. 29
Read the introduction and Case Notes for Chapter 9. Also take a look at the Bloomington Campus
regulations. Note that the same form is used for teaching and research, although presumeably the
approval process may hinge on different criteria.
Prepare to discuss the case that was assigned to you.
Read the handout about Gennarelli's research at the University of Pennsylvania and the ALF raid.
Assignment #17: Oct. 31
Evaluating web sites.
When using the web, particularly for controversial topics, one needs to be
able to get some idea of the reliability of the source and whether it is
likely to have a particular slant on the issue at hand.
Click on each of the web sources listed below and see how
quickly you can form an impression of where the source is "coming from."
In addition, prepare an answer to the question you drew from the envelope.
If your site says nothing at all about the question, please report that
also and remark on whether you think the absence is significant.
The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics
Stem Cells -- Ethics, Research, and Regulation
Guardian Unlimited | Special report: ethics of genetics
Assignment #18: Nov. 5
In class we will discuss in greater detail the requirements for Essay #3.
We will also form the debate teams and give out instructions for the debates
which will begin next week!
Assignment #19: Nov. 7
No Class! (I will be out of town.) Turn in your Essay #3! (You can do this in one
of the following three ways: 1) Send your essay, including references, to koertge@indiana.edu
as an attachment. 2) Drop off your essay in the envelope attached to my office door,
Goodbody Hall 104. 3) Send the essay by campus mail to my office address.
Instructions for Essay #3
Assignment #20-21: Nov. 12, 14
Prepare for debates.
Assignment #22: Nov. 19
Start brainstorming for a Research Paper topic. I will throw out a lot of ideas in class.
Here is a link to some notes and ideas I prepared for a similar Freshman Seminar that I
taught last year:
Miscellaneous Ideas for Research Papers
Assignment #23: Nov. 21
Library session. We will go to the LETRS center close to the Reference Desk in the
East side of the Library. Here is a link to the special web site that the librarian prepared
for this class:
http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/libguide/ethics.html
Assignment #24: Nov. 26
No Class meeting. Your take-home assignment for this day is to e-mail me your choice
of topic for your paper and a preliminary bibliography (at least one good source).
Assignment #25 - 28: Dec. 3, 5, 10, 12
Oral presentations in class. The main purposes of this assignment are to inform
the class about cases or issues that have not been emphasized or fully discussed
in class and to give you feedback before you prepare the final version of your
research paper. You need not have your remarks written out but you should have
your ideas well-organized.
We will also have two designated people to kick off the discussion. Often when
there is a speaker in an academic setting it is up to the person who gave the
introduction to get the discussion started. Here are some standard ploys: "I found
what you said about X very interesting. Could you say a
little more about X?" Or "You argued that Y is generally the case. But I would have
thought that there are some obvious reasons not to accept/believe Y! Could you
explain again why you think Y?" (Since the point of these questions is to provoke
discussion you don't really have to be interested in X or sceptical of Y.)
Below is the order of presentations, with the speaker listed first and
the discussants in parentheses. We will plan on having 3 or 4 presentations each day.
1. Jessica P. (Marissa, Andy)
2. Tim (Lindsay, Isabella)
3. Makenzi (Jessica W., Lauren)
4. Josh (Amy, Spencer)
5. Marissa (Abby, Will)
6. Andy (Jessica P., Tim)
7. Lindsay (Makenzi, Josh)
8. Isabella (Will, Jessica P.)
9. Jessica W. (Tim, Makenzi)
10. Lauren (Josh, Abby)
11. Amy (Spencer, Marissa)
12. Spencer (Andy, Lindsay)
13. Abby (Isabella, Jessica W.)
14. Will (Lauren, Amy)
Assignment #29: Dec. 19
Turn in your Research Paper by noon. Here is a reminder of the basic requirements:
Instructions for Research Papers
The suggested length is 8-10 pages but shorter papers are acceptable if they are
well-written and cover the topic adequately. See instructions for previous essays
about isolating ethical issues, giving pros and cons, etc.
For this paper, a list of at least 3 references is required and you must put citations
in the body of the paper using one of the styles listed on the library home page
(either MLA or APA). Include a page of the works consulted.
It is quite acceptable to take a rough draft to the Writing Tutorial Services center
in Ballantine and ask them for suggestions. Don't forget to use the spell-checker and
read your paper through carefully (perhaps aloud!) before you turn it in. Remember to
think about the narrative structure of your essay. (If you don't make an outline before
you write it, think about how it could be outlined after you write it!)