New Directions In The Philosophy Of Technology, Vol. 11 Book

I used this book to teach an Undergraduate Computer Science course titled "Social Implications Of Information Processing" at WPI, a decision I made hastily based on the previous professor's choice of the same text. I would not make the same choice again.

- I found the text repetitive.

- Definitions were sometimes narrow in scope, Data Mining - personal data only.

- Index was very sparse missing entries for Therac-25, Secondary use, Patriot Act, and so forth. Granted this was helpful in offering open book quizzes. :)

- Review, discussion and essay questions were repetitive for a given chapter.

- The author cites Wikipedia.com often, something I do not allow my students to do. (2010-12-17)

- Many URL's are cited without an access date. These last two points are particularly bothersome considering the nature of the courses this text is meant for.

- I've never had students complain about a text book as much as this one. I spent 25% of my class time clearing up "conceptual muddles" and filling in relevant topics other such texts include and cover in better depth.

- I did find the Chapter on Critical Thinking useful, as a few other sections of the book. It is not totally without merit.

Given that Baase does not seem to have put out a fourth edition of "A Gift Of Fire" I'd recommend Quinn's "Ethics For The Information Age" instead of this text.