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Genetic Engineering in Medicine, Agriculture, & Law is a class that examines the historical and scientific study of genetic engineering in medicine, agriculture, and law, including examination of social, ethical, and legal issues raised by new technology. About the Professor: Dr. Bob Goldberg is a plant molecular biologist who specializes in the area of plant gene expression. The goal of his research has been to understand how plant cells ...more
This survey course introduces students to the important and basic material on human fertility, population growth, the demographic transition and population policy. Topics include: the human and environmental dimensions of population pressure, demographic history, economic and cultural causes of demographic change, environmental carrying capacity and sustainability. Political, religious and ethical issues surrounding fertility are also addr...more
Intensive examination of ethical and policy issues arising from interaction of media institutions (print, film, broadcasting, and new technologies) and societal institutions (Congress, federal agencies, courts, Presidency, schools, churches, political action groups, advertisers, and audiences).
In this introduction to ethics, we shall be considering the underpinnings of ethical thought. We shall consider, for example, what it is for an action to be right or wrong, whether we can have moral knowledge and whether freewill is essential to morality. We shall reflect on four key ethical theories (virtue ethics, deontology, non-cognitivism and utilitarianism), looking at both their strengths and their weaknesses. We shall be looking at...more
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner (AMST 246)Professor Wai Chee Dimock continues her discussion of Light in August by showing how the kindness of strangers turns into malice in the cases of social reformer Joanna Burden and Reverend Hightower. Whereas that malice assumes comedic tones in the depiction of Joanna's death, it has more complex valences in the case of Reverend Hightower, who is both ethically delicate towards his neighbors and ins...more
Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner (AMST 246)Professor Wai Chee Dimock focuses on the themes of dying and not dying that reappear throughout For Whom the Bell Tolls. Marshaling Elaine Scarry's argument on the aesthetics of killing, she reads the execution of the Fascists as a representation of both aesthetic and ethical "ugliness" in death. She then turns to a discussion of the tragic-comic dimensions of not dying as depicted in the bullfight...more
Foundations of Modern Social Thought (SOCY 151)Adam Smith's ideas about self-interest should be understood as a precursor in some ways to John Stuart Mill's thinking on utilitarianism. Professor Szelenyi discusses, but does not resolve, the complexities of Adam Smith's moral and ethical positions staked out in The Theory of Moral Sentiments—including a focus on sympathy—and the most widespread economic interpretation of Smith and The ...more
Capitalism: Success, Crisis and Reform (PLSC 270) Jim Alexander, former CFO of the Enron subsidiary Enron Global Power and Pipeline, offers an insider's account of Enron's corporate culture and operations before the company's spectacular fall. The leaders of Enron, Mr. Alexander asserts, disregarded concerns over the company's ethics. Enron strategically found and exploited loopholes in accounting regulations to make their transactions as...more
In ancient times, documents that were falsely attributed to an author, called pseudepigrapha, were a common phenomenon. Both the Letters to the Colossians and Ephesians are most likely pseudonymous works attributed to the Apostle Paul. The writer of Colossians assures his readers that they already possess all the benefits of salvation and do not need to observe rules concerning feast days, Sabbaths, and worship of the angels. Ephesians see...more
Komisar explains that there is no balanced life in being a CEO. It is a 24/7 job and is all-consuming. After being a CEO, Komisar decided to cut back and bring his life back into balance so he could have time for all the things he enjoyed. It is essential to stay ethical and never put yourself in a situation where you can't say no and cut back. Maintaining a balanced life is a dynamic quest and changes as your priorities change. People w...more
August 9, 2007 presentation by Russ Altman for the Stanford University Office of Science Outreach's Summer Science Lecture Series. There are a number of causes for variation in drug response across the population, but differences in genetics are an important factor. Russ Altman, Professor & Chair of Bioengineering and Professor of Genetics and Medicine, discusses how variations in genetics can alter the "typical" response as well as touch...more
