Biography


Professor Gates earned a BA in Philosophy at BYU, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Villanova University. Specializing in ethics/moral philosophy, he has taught philosophy and ethics at BYU for the past 17 years. He teaches (and created) the Ethics for Computers and Society course (CS 404) which concerns ethical issues related to software engineering and the computer industry. He currently focuses on issues in business ethics, and he has a chapter in the Routledge Companion to Business Ethics on teaching ethics (published Feb. 2018, with co-authors Brad Agle and Richard Williams). He is currently writing several papers on the relation between moral rationalization, self-deception, and unethical actions, and he is a Visiting Fellow with the Wheatley Institute doing research as part of their ethics initiative. He resides in Provo with his wife and eight children.