Difference between revisions of "Thomas M. Powers"

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Thomas M. Powers (born 1965 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is an American Philosophy Professor at the University of Delaware.

Education

• PhD, University of Texas, Austin, 1994, Philosophy
• DAAD-Fulbright dissertation-year fellow, 1993-1994, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich
• BA, College of William and Mary, 1987, Philosophy

Career

Powers began his career at The College of William and Mary as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy. He then held the same position at Central Michigan University before becoming a Lecturer in Philosophy and an Adjunct Professor of Computer Engineering at Santa Clara University. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Delaware, as well as a Faculty Research Fellow of the Delaware Biotechnology Institute. His research focuses on ethics and technology, particularly information ethics.

Other important positions that Powers held include NSF Research Fellow at the University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science, Co-editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for "Ethics and Information Technology", and Director of the Science, Ethics, and Public Policy Program at the University of Delaware.

Contributions to Information Ethics

Publications

• “Real Wrongs in Virtual Communities”, Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 5, No. 4 (2004), pp.191-198.

See Also

• Virtual Rape
• MMORPGs
• Julian Dibbell
• Griefing

References

• “Incrementalism in Machine Ethics”, 'IEEE Robotics and Automation'
• “Prospects for a Kantian Machine”, Machine Ethics, eds. M. Anderson and S. Leigh Anderson
• “Machines and Moral Reasoning”, Philosophy Now, (March/April 2009)
• “Nanotech Development: You Can’t Please All of the People, All of the Time”, Nanotech Now, (February 2009)
• “Ethics and Technology: A Program for Future Research” (with Deborah Johnson), Society, Ethics, and Technology, 4th edition, eds. M. Winston and R. Edelbach, (2009)
• “Environmental Holism and Nanotechnology”, Nanotechnology and Society: Current and Emerging Ethical Issues, eds. F. Allhoff and P. Lin, (2008)
• “Computers as Surrogate Agents” (with Deborah Johnson), Information Technology and Moral Philosophy, eds. M. J. van den Hoven and J. Weckert, (2008)
• “Prospects for a Kantian Machine”, IEEE Intelligent Systems, (July 2006)
• “Computer Systems and Responsibility: A Normative Look at Technological Complexity” (with Deborah Johnson), Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 7, No. 2, (2005).
• “Consequentialism”, Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, ed. C. Mitcham, (2005)
• “Deontology”, Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics, ed. C. Mitcham, (2005).
• “Deontological Machine Ethics”, Technical Report, American Association for Artificial Intelligence, (2005).
• “Ideas, Expressions, Universals, and Particulars: Metaphysics in the Realm of Software Copyright Law”, Intellectual Property Rights in a Networked World, eds. H. Tavani and R. Spinello, (2004).
• “Real Wrongs in Virtual Communities”, Ethics and Information Technology, Vol. 5, No. 4 (2004).
• “Responsibility in Software Engineering: Uncovering an Ethical Model”, The Transformation of Organizations in the Information Age, (2002).
• “The Legacy of Kantian Rationalism for Social Theory”, From Kant to Weber: Freedom and Culture in Classical German Social Theory, eds. T. Powers and P. Kamolnick, (1999).
• “The Integrity of Body: Kantian Moral Constraints on the Physical Self”, Philosophy and Medicine, Vol. 60 (1999).