Philosophy as Integral to a Data Science Ethics Course

Abstract

There is wide agreement that ethical considerations are a valuable aspect of a data science curriculum, and to that end, many data science programs offer courses in data science ethics. There are not always, however, explicit connections between data science ethics and the centuries-old work on ethics within the discipline of philosophy. Here, we present a framework for bringing together key data science practices with ethical topics. The ethical topics were collated from sixteen data science ethics courses with public-facing syllabi and reading lists. We encourage individuals who are teaching data science ethics to engage with the philosophical literature and its connection to current data science practices, which is rife with potentially morally charged decision points.