Ethics testpaper preparation

Apart from studying the Stanford Prison Experiment, I want you to do the following in preparation for the testpaper of 29 October:

select an item from an English-language news source - the category can be politics, sports, entertainment, environment, education - anything goes! - the topic of which could be the subject of an ethical discussion. The article in question may not be published before 1 October, 2012!

For example (and that means you are NOT allowed to use this article yourselves!):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/oct/18/twitter-block-neo-nazi-account

Ethical questions:
- should the spread of fascist messages through Twitter (or other means) be allowed?
- is it acceptable that Twitter blocks an account at the request of a government?
- more generally: what are the limits of the freedom of speech?

Of course, at the test you will be asked to link your article with the ethical theories that have been discussed in class!

You are supposed to bring a printed copy of your article to the test and hand it in along with your answers.

Questions? You know where to find me!

The Stanford Prison Experiment

In your Ethics testpaper, set for Monday 29 October, you will be asked to answer a question (you'll have a choice from three) about the Stanford Prison Experiment.

This experiment was conducted at the psychology department of Stanford University in 1971 with the purpose of researching how people react to extreme circumstances as well as obeying or executing authority. The experiment got completely out of hand and was terminated weeks before the envisioned end date.

Go to the website where the professor behind the experiment, Philip Zimbardo, and his team, give a detailed description of the experiment:

http://www.prisonexp.org/

Explore the site and keep the following two questions in mind:

- what does this experiment tell us about the morality of the people involved?
- is it ethical to conduct such an experiment to begin with?