Studying Ethics Across Disciplines

Undergraduates explore ethical issues in health, education, finance, computers and the environment at Lehigh’s third annual ethics symposium.

"The event was hosted for the first time by Lehigh’s new Center for Ethics and made possible by The Endowment Fund for the Teaching of Ethical Decision-Making. The philosophy honor society Phi Sigma Tau also helped organize the symposium, which allowed students to share their research work on ethical problems in or outside their field of study.

“Without opportunities for Lehigh undergrads to study ethical issues and to engage in informed thinking and discussion of them, they won’t be well-prepared to take on these challenges and respond to them well,” said Professor Robin Dillon, director of the Lehigh Center of Ethics. “The symposium is one of the opportunities the [Center of Ethics] provides.”

Awards were given to the best presentation from each of the three colleges and a grand prize. This year, the judges were so impressed with the quality of the presentations that they decided to award two grand prizes for the best presentation of the symposium category.

Harry W. Ossolinski ’20 and Patricia Sittikul ’19 both won the grand prize.

As a computer science student, Sittikul researched the ethics behind automated home devices and social media, such as Tumblr and Reddit. Sittikul looked at privacy and censorship issues and whether the outlets are beneficial.

Sittikul said the developers of the devices and apps should be held accountable for the ethical issues that arise. She said she has seen some companies look for solutions to ethical problems.

“I think it's incredibly important to look at ethical questions as a computer scientist because when you are working on technology, you are impacting so many people whether you know it or not,” Sittikul said.""