To substitute for discussion section absence the week of 10/31-11/3:
Write a short essay that responds to the following prompt:
With reference to the texts listed below, what does objectivity mean, and why is it important to democracy?
Although there is no fixed word length for the essay, for full credit you should write for at least 1.5 hours–the equivalent of the time you would have spent in your discussion section. Not everyone writes at the same speed, so the length and quality may vary. However, essays that are excessively short or that do not show good faith engagement with the texts and the prompt may receive only partial credit.
Required texts to discuss:
T. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life)Chapter 4, “The Political Philosophy of Quantification,” pp. 73-86.
danah boyd, “You Think You Wantn external site. Medium, March 9, 2018.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus, “How Harmful is Social Media?”Actions The New Yorker, June 3rd, 2022