Huzeyfe Demirtas

Course Description:

This course addresses a range of questions surrounding environmental ethics. We will begin by examining some of the major ethical theories about moral rightness and wrongness. What makes an action morally right or wrong? What considerations do we need to take into account in making moral decisions? We will then address various ethical questions regarding climate change. Does climate change generate moral obligations for individuals or only for governments? If it generates moral obligations for individuals, how demanding are these obligations? After that, we will discuss questions regarding (non-human) animals. Do we have moral duties towards animals? Do animals morally count less than humans or are they morally equal to us? Is it wrong to consume animal products? We will finish the course by addressing moral questions about non-animal objects in nature such as trees and rivers. Do we have moral duties to them? If yes, what further moral implications follow?

Course Description:

The goal is to investigate some of the central topics concerning the meaning of life. We will be interested in these topics not only for possible answers. Our journey will be at least as significant for the genuine questions that we will encounter or raise along the way. Our journey will also help you develop reasoning and argumentative skills, and learn how to write reasonably and clearly. Some of the central questions we will discuss are as follows:

• What are we after when we inquire about life’s meaning?
• Is the meaning of life a subjective or an objective matter?
• What, if anything, constitutes a meaningful life?
• Can life still be meaningful if there is no God?
• How do different conceptions of God bear on life’s meaning?

Course Description:

After a brief review of basic concepts like validity and soundness, the course covers truth tables and proofs in both statement logic and predicate logic.

Goals:

(1) To improve reasoning skills by practicing within a formal structure. (2) To develop a fuller appreciation of the meanings of English sentences by analyzing their formal structure and tracing their logical consequences. (3) To improve skills in written and oral communication by accomplishing the first two tasks.

Course Description:

Is it up to you take this course? Or is it determined beforehand? Or could both of those be true together? Would the absence of prior determination help, or would that just turn your actions into chance events? This course explores the concept of free will, asking: what is it, can we have any, and why should we care?

Goals:

After taking this course, the students will be able to:

… explain and intelligently discuss the major theories of free will.
… formulate and defend their own views on free will.
… better appreciate subtle distinctions and arguments.
… read, write, and converse at a higher level.

Course Description:

What does it mean to live a meaningful life? Is a meaningful life a happy life? Can the answers to these questions help us reconcile to all that is wrong with the world? These questions become especially interesting now that we’re going through challenging times where quarantine, anxiety, and limited mobility and sociality are among the defining features of our lives. In this course, we will examine some of the influential philosophical perspectives on the meaning of life and happiness. The course will also aim to improve your critical thinking and writing skills.

Course Description:

This course covers some of the central topics that concern us as human beings. We will be interested in these topics not only for possible answers. Our journey will be at least as significant, if not actually more, for the genuine questions we will raise along the way. Our journey will also help you develop reasoning and argumentative skills, and learn how to write reasonably and clearly. We will discuss these questions:

• What is knowledge and how do we obtain it?
• What sort of cognitive biases do we have? Are we blind to the obvious?
• What is it that makes us what we are?
• What is the meaning of life? What, if anything, matters?
• Is morality objective? Why be moral?
• Is death bad for us? Can we cheat death?

Course Description:

The primary goal is to help you develop reasoning and argumentative skills. You will learn how to write reasonably and clearly. The secondary goal is to introduce you to the main topics in philosophy. We will discuss these philosophical issues:

• What is knowledge and how do we obtain it?
• Do we have free will? Are we morally responsible for our actions?
• Is there a God?
• What is a mind?
• What is it that makes you what you are?

Course Description:

This course is an introduction to major theories about moral rightness and wrongness, about virtue and vice, and about value and disvalue. We examine historically influential theories in the Western philosophical tradition that continue to be of contemporary interest, such as utilitarian, Kantian, and Aristotelian theories. Along the way, we discuss the relationship between morality and self-interest, as well as some disputed moral issues, such as our duties to non-human animals, the obligations of the affluent towards the poor, the ethics of abortion, hate speech and free speech. We use both historical and contemporary readings.

Goals:

To enable students to (a) gain a basic understanding of major moral theories, and of their merits; (b) gain a firm understanding of core ethical concepts and distinctions; (c) gain a facility for independently grappling with ethical issues in an articulate and informed manner; and (d) gain improved critical reading and analytical writing skills.

Module Description: We design and integrate short ethics snippets directly into the problem sets in CS50. These snippets prompt students to reflect on real-world dilemmas they may encounter as programmers—such as data privacy, accessibility, and responsible use of technology—right alongside their technical assignments. Students consider embedded ethical questions as part of their project submission process, fostering a habit of ethical reasoning early in their computer science education. Each year, CS50 reaches several hundred thousand students worldwide, allowing our integrated ethics materials to help foster a culture of ethical awareness among the next generation of computer scientists around the world.

(Co-created)

Module Overview: This module immerses students in the ethical evaluation of real-world software projects through a collaborative, “red teaming” format inspired by the Ethics Bowl. As part of the course, students are already working in teams on software projects, which form the basis for this exercise. Prior to the module, each team prepares a concise summary of their project, detailing aims, stakeholders, deployment plans, and data sources. This summary is then shared with another team playing the role of their “red team”—i.e., a group acting as adversaries who are looking for possible problems with the software. The red team’s job is to critically assess the project from a moral standpoint, identifying possible ethical pitfalls, stakeholder concerns, and potential public relations risks. During the class session, teams meet in pairs to present their critiques, engage in constructive discussion, and practice responding thoughtfully to ethical challenges. This interactive process encourages students to anticipate objections, refine their ethical reasoning, and consider the broader impact of their work. The session culminates in classroom-wide presentations, offering further opportunities for peer feedback and exchange of ideas.

Module Overview: How should economic resources be distributed in society, and what makes a distribution fair? In this module, we explore competing philosophical perspectives on distributive justice and examine their practical implications using interactive small group discussions and structured debates. Students begin by considering which hypothetical society they would prefer to inhabit, not knowing their own place within it. This exercise serves as a springboard to introduce and critically evaluate three major theories of distribution: egalitarianism, which values equality in resource allocation; libertarianism, which emphasizes individual entitlement and the justice of acquisition and transfer; and the Difference Principle, which permits inequalities only when they benefit the least advantaged. One key goal of the module is to illustrate how we can build better theories of distributive justice by carefully weighing the merits and shortcomings of each perspective, and moving toward more satisfactory views at each step. By the end of the module, students will revisit their initial preferences for a just society and reflect on how their thinking has evolved in light of the philosophical arguments encountered.

Module Overview: In the face of a digital security threat, you are mostly on your own. There is no equivalent of state protection or police patrols. What is worse, you will likely receive no justice if your digital assets are attacked, destroyed, or stolen. Generally, these cases have seen no arrests, prosecution, or restitution. Unsurprisingly, some victims consider taking matters into their own hands by hacking back or striking against their digital attackers. In this module, we discuss the potential risks and benefits of hacking back and consider whether hacking back can be morally justified on the grounds of self-defense. We also discuss whether hacking back should be made legally permissible.

Module Overview: This module examines the ethical importance of being able to explain the human targets of machine learning decision systems exactly how the algorithms made their determinations. This feature, often referred to as “interpretability,” is generally seen as an important aspect of algorithmic systems that impact human lives and livelihoods. Some policy makers have even suggested that ML systems that aren’t interpretable shouldn’t be used. That said, many decisions made by humans that intuitively seem unproblematic aren’t interpretable, which raises concerns that ML faces a problematic double-standard. Furthermore, interpretability is subject to seemingly relevant trade-o s, e.g., a “black box” ML algorithm that is extremely accurate may, in some situations, be preferable to a less accurate algorithm that is interpretable. Students are given the opportunity to discuss the ethical importance of interpretability, the possible double standard charge in AI governance, and the ethical trade-o s regarding interpretability in extensive small group discussion.

(Co-created and co-run.)

Module Overview: Evidence  suggests that in the past three decades tech-driven task displacement across US  sectors  has significantly outpaced the replacement of those tasks by others, thus leaving less total work to be done by human workers. Robots and AI are expected to continue this trend, and some have argued that recent advances in those technologies will greatly accelerate the trend. Some researchers predict large scale unemployment due to novel technologies in the next several decades if the trend continues. In this module, students have the opportunity to consider and discuss the potential moral and practical reasons that might compel us–as a society–to take action to address this so-called technological unemployment problem. Students will also brainstorm and discuss what steps society might take to either prevent or slow down the pace of technological unemployment and what mitigation strategies could be deployed to address its bad consequences if we fail to prevent it.