Ethics of Privacy

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Concerns about the loss of privacy play an increasingly important role in discussions of modern life, but frequently the concept of privacy itself is unexamined and vaguely understood. How can/should we think about what privacy is? What explains its value? What kind of rights to privacy ought we to have? This course serves as an introduction to contemporary philosophical discussions about privacy and connects that literature to ongoing debates about interpersonal ethics and public policy. Course reading will include seminal court cases as well as twentieth-century philosophical analyses that have shaped our current understanding of privacy. The course will cover radical critiques of the value of privacy, patients’ rights, sexual ethics, anonymity in politics, and online interaction. Throughout the semester, we will examine how different traditions in normative ethics (e.g., Kantian or consequentialist) approach these issues. Students will be evaluated on the basis of three formal papers (5-7pp in length) and regular participation.