or each question, please write around 1-2 pages (single-spaced, 1-inch margins all around, 12 point font, 2 pages max.), arguing for a particular position.
Make sure to address your opponents’ views and show why their view(s) are wrong or unconvincing. Also, make sure you demonstrate your knowledge of the
concepts and readings we learned in class as much as possible
1. According to some, human engineers are exempt from moral responsibility because even they cannot predict or understand the causal pathway through
which artificial intelligence machines arrive at decisions (even though they have programmed them). Still, some argue that human engineers do have some
share of responsibility, and someone or something needs to take responsibility for the wrongs that some have to suffer as a result of algorithmic bias or
failure (e.g. criminal sentencing, hiring/firing decisions). Do you think human engineers do have at least some share of responsibility for the mistakes that
algorithms make – if so, in what specific ways are engineers responsible, and what might they do to mitigate algorithmic bias and harm? If you think
engineers do not have any responsibility at all, explain why you think so. Please use specific examples to make your case
2. Libertarian thinkers such as Robert Nozick, Alan Wertheimer, and Jessica Flanigan believe that individuals have a right to freely enter into contract with
each other for mutual benefit. This is why they argue that it’s not morally wrong to offer exploitative (or unconscionable) contracts, in which A exploits B’s
weakness to make a disproportionate gains for herself. An example of an exploitative contract is a wealthy businessman’s offer to a poor person in a third
world country to work in his sweatshop factory for an extremely low wage. Since it’s better for the poor person to have the job than not have the job,
libertarians argue that the businessman’s offer is not morally wrong, even if he offers working conditions that are below global standards of decency. Yet,
others such as Brian Berkey argue that exploitative contracts are nevertheless wrong because wealthy countries have a prior duty to the global poor to help
them out or offer them jobs in decent working conditions. Berkey argue that this prior duty to the global poor stems from the undeserved advantage that
wealth countries enjoy from global structural injustice (e.g. unfair terms of trade, inequalities in education, capital, access to healthcare, natural resource
endowment), which in turn, puts the global poor at a disadvantage. Do you agree with libertarians that businessmen in wealthy countries are not morally
wrong to offer the poor in third world countries exploitative jobs in sweatshop factories, or do you think that their exploitative offers are wrong because they
have a prior duty to the global poor, as Berkey argues?
3. The idea of an unconditional universal basic income for all strikes many people as an attractive solution to poverty and unemployment. But there are many
normative and practical objections to the idea of a universal basic income, one of which is that a universal basic income unfairly allows those who are lazy
and unwilling to work to live off of (forced) public charity. Despite these objections, however, proponents of a universal basic income argue that a universal
basic income is not only feasible but also normatively justified due to the fact that those who are currently employed enjoy a certain unfair privilege (or
“rents”) simply because of their employed status. Setting aside the issue of feasibility (which would require a lot of calculations and access to data), do you
think a universal basic income is normatively justified? Why or why not? In formulating your answer, consider Philippe Van Parijs’s arguments about the unfair
advantages that the currently employed enjoy, and what this implies about the justifiability of a universal basic income.
https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/libertarian-case-basic-income
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