Herman T. Tavani

Last updated
Herman T. Tavani
NationalityAmerican
Education West Chester University (MA)
Temple University (PhD)
Occupation(s)Professor, academic, scholar, author
Website https://www2.rivier.edu/faculty/htavani/

Herman T. Tavani is an American academic, scholar in information and computer ethics, [1] and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Rivier University, where he served as Chair of the Philosophy Department and Director of the Liberal Studies Program. He previously held appointments at Boston College Carroll School of Management and Dartmouth College's Humanities Institute (Leslie Center). Currently, he is a visiting scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has authored scholarly publications on ethics, privacy, information, and computer technology. [2] He is a past president of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology and a recipient of the Weizenbaum Award in 2019. [3] [4]

Contents

Education

Tavani earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy from West Chester University. He then pursued his Ph.D. in philosophy at Temple University. His specialty areas include artificial intelligence ethics, philosophy and technology, information computer ethics, public health ethics, and critical reasoning/logic. [5]

Career

Tavani taught philosophy courses at Rivier University from 1980 until his retirement from full-time teaching in 2011, and now he serves as an emeritus professor. He previously held roles as Chair of Rivier’s Philosophy Department and Director of the University’s Liberal Studies Program. [5]

Tavani also held academic appointments at Dartmouth College as a visiting scholar and associate research fellow and at the Harvard School of Public Health as a visiting scholar in environmental health ethics for over two decades. At Harvard's Center for Environmental Health, he specializes in addressing privacy and consent issues in studies utilizing emerging technologies. [5] [6]

Tavani authored the study textbook "Ethics and Technology" [7] and has written, edited, or co-edited five other books. His academic publications include journal articles, encyclopedia entries, review essays, book reviews, bibliographies, and edited volumes. He has delivered keynote addresses and presented scholarly papers at institutions across Europe, Japan, and the United States. [8] He serves on editorial and review boards of several academic journals and has been the Book Review Editor of the Journal of Ethics and Information Technology since 1998, as well as a former associate editor of Computers and Society. [5] [3] [1] [9]

Positions

- Current member and past president of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology – 2008-2011. [3]

- President of the Northern New England Philosophical Association. [3]

Selected works and publications

Awards

Tavani received the Weizenbaum Award in 2019.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Weizenbaum</span> German American computer scientist (1923–2008)

Joseph Weizenbaum was a German American computer scientist and a professor at MIT. The Weizenbaum Award and the Weizenbaum Institute are named after him.

Computer ethics is a part of practical philosophy concerned with how computing professionals should make decisions regarding professional and social conduct.

Joel Moses was an Israeli-American mathematician, computer scientist, and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

<i>Computer Power and Human Reason</i> 1976 book by Joseph Weizenbaum

Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation is a 1976 nonfiction book by German-American computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum in which he contends that while artificial intelligence may be possible, we should never allow computers to make important decisions, as they will always lack human qualities such as compassion and wisdom.

Brian Cantwell Smith is a philosopher and cognitive scientist working in the fields of cognitive science, computer science, information science, and philosophy, especially ontology.

Information ethics has been defined as "the branch of ethics that focuses on the relationship between the creation, organization, dissemination, and use of information, and the ethical standards and moral codes governing human conduct in society". It examines the morality that comes from information as a resource, a product, or as a target. It provides a critical framework for considering moral issues concerning informational privacy, moral agency, new environmental issues, problems arising from the life-cycle of information. It is very vital to understand that librarians, archivists, information professionals among others, really understand the importance of knowing how to disseminate proper information as well as being responsible with their actions when addressing information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luciano Floridi</span> Italian philosopher (born 1964)

Luciano Floridi is an Italian and British philosopher. He is the director of the Digital Ethics Center at Yale University. He is also a Professor of Sociology of Culture and Communication at the University of Bologna, Department of Legal Studies, where he is the director of the Centre for Digital Ethics. Furthermore, he is adjunct professor at the Department of Economics, American University, Washington D.C. He is married to the neuroscientist Anna Christina Nobre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UIT University</span> University in Karachi, Pakistan

UIT University is a not-for profit institute. UIT university's campus is located at the intersection of University Road and Abul Hasan Isphahani Road, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Spector</span> American computer scientist and research manager

Alfred Zalmon Spector is an American computer scientist and research manager. He is a visiting scholar in the MIT EECS Department and was previously CTO of Two Sigma Investments. Before that, he was Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives at Google.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyberethics</span> Ethics of online activities

Cyberethics is "a branch of ethics concerned with behavior in an online environment". In another definition, it is the "exploration of the entire range of ethical and moral issues that arise in cyberspace" while cyberspace is understood to be "the electronic worlds made visible by the Internet." For years, various governments have enacted regulations while organizations have defined policies about cyberethics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Aczel</span> British mathematician and logician

Peter Henry George Aczel was a British mathematician, logician and Emeritus joint Professor in the Department of Computer Science and the School of Mathematics at the University of Manchester. He is known for his work in non-well-founded set theory, constructive set theory, and Frege structures.

Terrell Ward Bynum is an American philosopher, writer and editor. Bynum is currently director of the Research Center on Computing and Society at Southern Connecticut State University, where he is also a professor of philosophy, and visiting professor in the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility in De Montfort University, Leicester, England. He is best known as a pioneer and historian in the field of computer and information ethics; for his achievements in that field, he was awarded the Barwise Prize of the American Philosophical Association, the Weizenbaum Award of the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology, and the 2011 Covey Award of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy. In addition, Bynum was the founder and longtime editor-in-chief of the philosophy journal Metaphilosophy ; a key founding figure (1974–1980) and the first executive director (1980–1982) of the American Association of Philosophy Teachers; biographer of the philosopher/ mathematician Gottlob Frege, as well as a translator of Frege's early works in logic. Bynum's most recent research and publications concern the ultimate nature of the universe and the impact of the information revolution upon philosophy.

Jeroen van den Hoven is a Dutch ethicist and a philosophy professor at Delft University of Technology. He specializes in ethics of information technology.

The Weizenbaum Award was established in 2008 by the International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (INSEIT). It is given every two years by INSEIT's adjudication committee to an individual who has “made a significant contribution to the field of information and computer ethics, through his or her research, service, and vision.”

This article gives an overview of professional ethics as applied to computer programming and software development, in particular the ethical guidelines that developers are expected to follow and apply when writing programming code, and when they are part of a programmer-customer or employee-employer relationship. These rules shape and differentiate good practices and attitudes from the wrong ones when creating software or when making decisions on a crucial or delicate issue regarding a programming project. They are also the basis for ethical decision-making skills in the conduct of professional work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara J. Grosz</span> American computer scientist (born 1948)

Barbara J. Grosz CorrFRSE is an American computer scientist and Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences at Harvard University. She has made seminal contributions to the fields of natural language processing and multi-agent systems. With Alison Simmons, she is co-founder of the Embedded EthiCS programme at Harvard, which embeds ethics lessons into computer science courses.

Kenneth Einar Himma is an American philosopher, author, lawyer, academic and lecturer.

Erika Bachiochi is an American legal scholar and fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. She currently serves as the director of the Wollstonecraft Project at the Abigail Adams Institute, where she is a senior fellow. Bachiochi is a Catholic feminist who identifies as pro-life. She is the author of The Rights of Women: Reclaiming a Lost Vision, has edited Women, Sex & the Church: A Case for Catholic Teaching and The Cost of Choice: Women Evaluate the Impact of Abortion.

Dutch philosophy is a broad branch of philosophy that discusses the contributions of Dutch philosophers to the discourse of Western philosophy and Renaissance philosophy. The philosophy, as its own entity, arose in the 16th and 17th centuries through the philosophical studies of Desiderius Erasmus and Baruch Spinoza. The adoption of the humanistic perspective by Erasmus, despite his Christian background, and rational but theocentric perspective expounded by Spinoza, supported each of these philosopher's works. In general, the philosophy revolved around acknowledging the reality of human self-determination and rational thought rather than focusing on traditional ideals of fatalism and virtue raised in Christianity. The roots of philosophical frameworks like the mind-body dualism and monism debate can also be traced to Dutch philosophy, which is attributed to 17th century philosopher René Descartes. Descartes was both a mathematician and philosopher during the Dutch Golden Age, despite being from the Kingdom of France. Modern Dutch philosophers like D.H. Th. Vollenhoven provided critical analyses on the dichotomy between dualism and monism.

Kimito Funatsu is a Japanese chemist specializing in chemoinformatics and data-driven chemistry, a Professor Emeritus at University of Tokyo, and the research director of the Data Science Center at Nara Institute of Science and Technology.

References

  1. 1 2 ASU School for the Future of Innovation in Society (2022-01-12). PIT Colloquium with Professor Herman T. Tavani . Retrieved 2025-01-19 via YouTube.
  2. herman Tavani - Google Scholar
  3. 1 2 3 4 Isaak, Jim (11 July 2014). "Prof. Herman T. Tavani". IEEE Technology and Society. Retrieved 19 January 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. International Society for Ethics and Information Technology (19 January 2025). "International Society for Ethics and Information Technology". INSEIT. Retrieved 19 Jan 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. 1 2 3 4 Rivier College editorial staff (19 January 2025). "Faculty Emeriti | Dr. Herman T. Tavani". Rivier University. Retrieved 19 January 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. "Visiting Scholars | Outreach | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health". 2024-09-30. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  7. COCO+CO (2024-10-03). "100% Locally Owned Radio Stations". WHAV - Greater Haverhill’s only public radio station and nonprofit local news service. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  8. "New Hampshire Humanities - Celebrating 50 Years". www.nhhumanities.org. Retrieved 2025-01-19.
  9. "IRMA-International.org: Herman T. Tavani". www.irma-international.org. Retrieved 2025-01-19.