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  24.s10 Spring 2009 Undergraduate Ethics Seminar

 

This spring the seminar introduced students to the field of ethics and helped students build relationships, investigate and solve ethical problems, share resources, and gain skills for clarifying their personal and vocational principles. The seminar provided students with tools to articulate, and to live, their values and convictions. We explored the concept of a learning community and encouraged them to help create such a community.

We met weekly over dinner and invited guests from various disciplines to talk to the students about their respective expertise. These lecture/discussions were interactive and lively. Throughout the semester, students also attended at least three events which were pertinent to our discussions and wrote brief reflection papers commenting on those events. As a final project, students gave presentations and reflected on their insights gained throughout the semester. Many of these insights will lead to plans for action in the coming semesters.

Guests included:

  • Professor Caspar Hare, Philosophy, MIT: "An Ethics Tool-Kit"
  • Professor David Jones, STS, MIT: "The Ethics of Health Care"
  • Debra Levy, Harvard University: "The Ethics of Happiness"
  • Professor Richard Parker, Harvard University: "Economic Justice"
  • Tiffany Guo,'09, MIT, Global Poverty Initiative: "Global Poverty and What You Can Do"
  • Professor Bish Sanyal, Urban Studies and Planning, MIT: "The Ethics of International Development"
  • Abderrahmane Sissako, international filmmaker: "Ethics and the Artist's Responsibility"

Please check back during the summer and early fall to learn more about our 2009-2010 seminars and activities.

Instructors

Professor Sally Haslanger, shaslang@mit.edu
Women’s and Gender Studies
Sally Haslanger is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy.

Ms. Patricia Weinmann, weinmann@mit.edu
Assistant Coordinator, Technology and Culture Forum
Trish Weinmann is the Associate Coordinator of MIT's Technology and Culture Forum (TAC), where she helps organize lectures and symposia that explore the role of science and technology in promoting positive social, ecological, and economic change.