Products

About

©2019 StudyMode.com

LAS 432

Topics: Immanuel Kant, Philosophy, Categorical imperative Pages: 4 (430 words) Published: December 4, 2014
LAS 432—November 2014

Write essays of about one page (300 words) to each of the following questions. Each question is based on an assigned chapter from our textbook. Write the response in your own words. You may use short quotes of a sentence or less from the textbook to support your ideas, and you may also refer to the videos we watched in class, but don’t use any external sites.

Chapter 1

In class we watched United States of Secrets, which detailed the NSA’s controversial domestic spying program, as well as Edward Snowden’s decision to reveal classified information proving the program exists. In chapter 1 of our textbook, the philosophical theories of Kant, Mill, Locke, and others were discussed at length.

Discuss the ethics of the program and Edward Snowden’s actions, applying one or more of the following theoretical frameworks: Kant’s categorical imperative, Mill’s utilitarianism or libertarianism, or Locke’s natural rights.

Chapter 7

Baase ends chapter 7 with the following observation: “When we consider the most extreme potential developments, such as superintelligent robots, what level of certainty of dire consequences should we require before restricting the freedom to develop technologies and products that might have marvelous benefits?” (p. 351).

Do you believe that the potential dangers of superintelligent robots are such that we should restrict their development? Why or why not? In formulating your response, consider the ethical theories we have discussed in class, including the categorical imperative, utilitarianism, libertarianism, and natural rights.

Chapter 8

In chapter 8 Baase discusses numerous cases of technological failures and their negative consequences. Discuss one of these examples from chapter 8 in greater detail, such as the Therac 25, the Denver International Airport, or the Space...
Continue Reading

Please join StudyMode to read the full document

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • La Gear Essay

    ...Overview LA Gear is a company that enjoyed a meteoric rise to become the number three branded shoe maker in the country. Through a combination of excellent advertising campaigns and perception in to what kinds of shoes would sell, LA Gear became a major force in the industry in a relatively short period. Beginning in 1990 however, a convergence of poor decisions and bad luck led to a run of declining revenues and stock price. There were three big factors in this decline that were aggravated by bad decisions and a poor business structure that only seemed to work as long as revenues continued to increase. The release of the Michael Jackson Shoe in 1990 was supposed to coincide with the release of a greatest hits album. The album failed to materialize and the shoe was a huge failure. The Kareem Abdul Jabbar shoe, the catapult, also failed to sell. To top off the 1990 year, in December, before a nationally televised audience, a basketball player wearing a pair of LA Gear shoes stumbled and fell to the floor when the shoe fell apart as he was running. Because LA Gear operated with an at once ordering system which forced then to carry a huge amount of inventory, when the new shoes failed to sell and the quality of their shoes were called into question because of the televised incident, they were left with massive inventory costs. They dealt with the inventory by dumping it at deep discounts to wholesalers. This...

    Read More
    1314 Words 4 Pages
  • Essay on Las Meninas

    ... Considered as a Baroque masterpiece of 1656, Las Meninas, Spanish for The Maids of Honor, is a representation of the Spanish Royal family. The Spanish artist, Diego Velasquez, was the official painter of King Philip IV of Spain. At first the painting was identified as El cuadro de la Familia in seventeenth-century inventories. It was then known under the name of La Familia de Felipe IV in 1734, before being given its popular title Las Meninas in 1843. This painting is thus a court picture which depicts the presence of the monarchs and the royal household. The scene could be taking place in the painter's studio which was located in the palace of Philip IV. The painting is an oil on canvas found at the Museo del Prado in Madrid which measures more than three meters long by roughly three meters wide. It shows near life-sized characters and an impressive spatial construction with an overwhelming sense of realism. The artist's impressive work relies on the effect of the brushwork and on the delicate harmony of the colors, shapes and characters. The important cast of characters, including the presence of the artist, and the complexities of the painting make it ambiguous and thus a challenge to interpret. Several characters are presented, who are identified as from the Spanish court. In the center of the painting stands the young princess, daughter of the King, Infanta Margarita Teresa. She is surrounded by two...

    Read More
    1178 Words 3 Pages
  • Essay on La Llorona

    ...La Llorona La Llorona is a legend that began around the 1550s. It has been told to children by older ones for hundreds of years. Her real name is Maria. There are some who believe it to be true, but whether they believe or nor not it still remains in memories of many people. There are different stories about the La Llorona; here is someone that believes it’s true. La Llororna as told by Stephanie Cassias is said to be a southwestern folktale. The legend is said to be about as young Native American women named Maria. One day a man came riding into town she lived and ended up marrying the women. Cassias say, “She had two children or maybe three”. Maria’s husband one day left her and got all crazy. She was so angry she got her children and put them in a bag, took them to the river and drowned them to let all anger out. But after a few moments later she realized what she did and cried that she wanted her children. Then people from the city came and saw her dead. They buried at the same spot where she died and drowned her children. Then when she died they still here her yells say where my children are. So in my opinion I think that the Llorona is real.    Long ago, when Venezuela was still a part of Spain, a poor "mestiza" named Maria, De La Trinidad lived in a shanty near Lake Maraca Ibo. The only means she had to support herself and her toddler son was by washing clothes at the edge of the lake. Every...

    Read More
    1099 Words 3 Pages
  • La Amistad Essay

    ...La Amistad In 1839, Africans being carried from Havana, Cuba, to Puerto Principe, Cuba, revolted against their captors aboard the ship La Amistad (Spanish for 'friendship'). They were stolen from Africa, transported to the Americas, and were “passed off” as having been born in Cuba. After the revolt, the Africans demanded to be returned home, but the ship’s navigator lied to them about their course, and sailed them north along the North American coast to Long Island, New York. The schooner was subsequently taken into custody by the United States Navy. The Africans, who were deemed salvage from the vessel, were taken to Connecticut to be sold as slaves. A widely publicized court case ensued about the ship and the legal status of the African captives. This incident is very important to the anti-slavery movement because it was an important ruling. The fact that the U.S. supreme court ruled that the “Africans were taking illegally and thus not “property” of Cuban slave-traders or of Spain as Queen Isabella II of Spain. The illegal circumstances of their capture and transportation mean they are free” (www.archives.gov) gave a huge boost to the abolitionists and gave legal validity to the anti-slavery movement. Now, slaves had a “legal” leg to stand on. Looking back now, at the Amistad incident, one can deduce that this ruling gave a foothold to the legal side of ending slavery, which happened December 1865 when the 13th Amendment was ratified. My...

    Read More
    1302 Words 4 Pages
  • La Haine Essay

    ... La Haine (1995): dir. Mathieu Kassovitz- France Starkly shot in black and white to show a Paris not on any map, the film deals with Frances intolerance towards outsiders. After local youth Adel is beaten unconscious by police, a riot ensues on his estate during which a policeman loses his gun. La Haine follows vinz, Hubert and said, three young men trapped in the Parisian economic, ethnic and social underclass. Watching the film, what really stood out to me was the way the film shot- -Being wholly in black and white -The way the characters were introduced -The way segments and time was split (using subheadings) -The fluidity of the film is almost seamless -Individual scenes of the characters The film shows power, poverty and conflict within the estate of Paris: -Power: -The police have more power -The gun gives vinz power. -Being with each other gives them power and resistance: On the rooftop against the police, in the art gallery against the rich guy, against the skinheads. - The drugs give them a level of power - Saids brother has a lot of power. -Conflict: -Between the police -Between one another and their conflicting ideals- Vinz: Depravity, Said: Innocence, Hurberg: The morality - There is conflict between those in the upper class and the lower class -Gender conflict as well (The sister, The grandma, the other sister, the women in the art gallery) -Shows the hostility that ferments in the estate -Poverty: They can’t afford...

    Read More
    527 Words 2 Pages
  • Essay about Puccini's La Boheme

    ...Puccini’s La Bohème: An Analysis Giacomo Puccini has written a number of operas, including Turandot, Gianni Schicchi, and Madama Butterfly. La Bohème is said to be “one of the most successful and enchanting operas ever written.” Written in the romantic period, the text and score interrelations play an important role in an overall aesthetically and historically pleasing opera. In a story of love found and love lost, Puccini uses text and score to create empathy for the characters of La Boheme. Puccini does so particularly in the aria Donde lieta uscì, sung by Mimi towards the end of Act III. Mimi introduces herself as a seamstress and neighbor looking for Rudolpho to light her candle. They soon develop a romantic relationship which becomes a major plot line in the opera. She is suffering of consumption and her health deteriorates as the opera goes on. By the third act, her health has taken a major hit, and it has been made clear that she is dying. Rudolpho begins to estrange Mimi, feigning jealousy but he soon reveals that he is afraid to watch Mimi die. When Mimi overhears this she confronts Rudolpho and sings this aria as a goodbye. The aria begins with violins, playing the first line of Mimi’s first aria, Mia chiamano Mimi. By this time in the opera, this has become a theme for Mimi and Rodolpho’s love. She begins singing Donde lieta uscì al tuo grido d’amore, torn sola Mimì solitaro nido, which translates to I came...

    Read More
    1146 Words 4 Pages
  • La Haine Review Essay

    ...La Haine Review “La Haine”, a 93 minute film regarding about three adolescents(Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, and Said Taghmaoui) who struggle to cope in a poverty-stricken environment in which hatred and violence are part of everyday life. Even the title “La Haine” which is a French word, translated to 'The Hatred' suggests what the film is about. Based on a true event, “La Haine” is inspired by a real event where a young man was murdered while being questioned at a Parisian Police station. In exploring racism in the Paris suburbs, this film has a direct contrast with more typical French films, such as Amelie(2001) which presents a far more romantic and idyllic vision of French life. The beginning of La 'Haine' shows the beating of a Parisian in comparison to the beginning of Malcolm X which in the beginning, shows the beating of Rodney King and these two have a direct comparison as they both represent inequality as those people being beaten up had done no crime or malignant deed to deserve the beatings. “La Haine” has such a huge impact as the film remakes how the riots in the outskirts of Paris were created and how the three adolescents from different ethnic backgrounds, where Vinz is Jewish, Said is Arab and Hubert is African, cope with ongoing riots. The director(Mathieu Kassovitz) inspiration was the riots of LA and the riots in Paris and how the riots had similar...

    Read More
    938 Words 3 Pages
  • The Many Faces of "La Llorona" Essay

    ..."La Llorona", the Crying Woman, is a tale of endless versions told over the centuries by an endless array of anonymous storytellers to scare curious children into doing as they are told. The literary form of orality, though fluid and dynamic, is in this case the force behind the cohesion of the contents of the various versions of this Chicano legend. I shall show that the different contents found in the multiple versions of "La Llorona" are of the same form, and further, that the variations depend on the locale of settled Chicano populations. In truth, the farther away a distinct Chicano population is from its cultural heritage, the more opaque and sinister the mystic tale of "La Llorona" is told within that local population. Let us look back to the beginning, the time of Hernando Cortés during Spain's conquest over the Aztec tribes of Mexico. This is where the tale of the Crying Woman was said to have begun ("La Llorona" 79). In this ancient history, La Llorona is part of a holy trinity, mirroring the Christian faith. According to Gloria Anzaldúa, "All three are mediators: Guadalupe, the virgin mother who has not abandoned us, la Chingada (Malinche), the raped mother whom we have abandoned [Malinche is the basis for many of the "La Llorona" versions], and la Llorona, the mother who seeks her lost children and is a combination of the other two" (3047)....

    Read More
    1483 Words 4 Pages

Popular Essays

Become a StudyMode Member

Sign Up - It's Free