Monday, February 11, 2008

Feb 11 Writing Assignment

1. More Privacy. (From Baase, 2.36). Philosophers and ethicists often distinguish between positive and negative rights. A positive right is the right to be allowed to do something (for example, the right to vote). A negative right is the right to be protected from something (for example, the right not to be convicted without a trial). Baase provides a longer description on page 35.

Consider privacy, particularly digital privacy, from each point of view and give some examples and/or analogies of what it would mean for privacy to be either a positive right or a negative right. In your opinion, which formulation of privacy is more appropriate and why?


2. Read Chapter 3 of Cress and write a blog entry corresponding to the first two bullet points in Exercise 3.4 (p38). (you may skip the part about ALPs)