Vance Ricks
Associate Teaching Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science
Vance Ricks is an associate teaching professor at Northeastern University, holding joint appointments in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities and Khoury College of Computer Sciences. Ricks earned his doctorate in philosophy from Stanford University. His teaching and research focus on moral philosophy, ranging from the ethics of digital technologies to the works of John Stuart Mill. His current research projects are on computer ethics pedagogy and (separately) on social robots.
Before joining Northeastern, Ricks was an associate professor of philosophy at Guilford College. He has published on the implications of social networks for friendship and for gossip, and has co-authored publications on autonomous vehicles and on designing ethics modules for computer science courses. He has also edited and contributed chapters to the Mozilla Foundation’s Responsible Computer Science Playbook, a guide for computer science instructors who want to incorporate ethical reasoning into their curricula.
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Education
Ph.D., Philosophy
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Contact
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Address
432 Renaissance Park
360 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Debating Ethical Controversies
PHIL 1112
Introduces students to the fundamentals of moral theory; ethical reasoning; social and political philosophy; as well as theories of social, political, and institutional change. Emphasizes in-depth ethical analysis and evaluation of the issues studied, their social and historical sources and context, as well as the way in which responses to them can and should lead to institutional and policy changes. Offers students an opportunity to be selected for an off-campus competitive debate experience. This course is modeled after the Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl debates on current social and ethical issues.
