Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the algorithmic judgment at its core, is developing at breakneck speed. This version of the popular Ethics for Engineers course focuses on the ethics issues involved in the latest developments of computer science.

This course provides an overview of major works of social thought from the beginning of the modern era through the 1920s. Attention is paid to social and intellectual contexts, conceptual frameworks and methods, and contributions to contemporary social analysis. Writers include Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Adam Smith, Marx, Weber, and Durkheim.

This subject offers a broad survey of texts (both literary and philosophical) drawn from the Western tradition and selected to trace the growth of ideas about the nature of mankind’s ethical and political life in the West since the renaissance. It will deal with the change in perspective imposed by scientific ideas, the general loss of a supernatural or religious perspective upon human events, and the effects for good or ill of the increasing authority of an intelligence uninformed by religion as a guide to life. The readings are roughly complementary to the readings in 21L001, and classroom discussion will stress appreciation and analysis of texts that came to represent the cultural heritage of the modern world.

This course offers an introduction to the history and historiography of science from ancient Greece to the present. It is designed to serve as an introduction for those who have no prior background in the field and to deepen the knowledge of those who already do. We will consider how the history of science has responded to its encounters with philosophy, sociology, economics, and anthropology. Our readings and discussions will focus on determining what makes particular works effective, understanding major contemporary trends and debates in the history of science, and establishing resources for further research.

This course is intended as an introduction to political philosophy as seen through an examination of some of the major texts and thinkers of the Western political tradition. Three broad themes that are central to understanding political life are focused upon: the polis experience (Plato, Aristotle), the sovereign state (Machiavelli, Hobbes), constitutional government (Locke), and democracy (Rousseau, Tocqueville). The way in which different political philosophies have given expression to various forms of political institutions and our ways of life are examined throughout the course.

This class explores the creation (and creativity) of the modern scientific and cultural world through study of western Europe in the 17th century, the age of Descartes and Newton, Shakespeare, Milton and Ford. It compares period thinking to present-day debates about the scientific method, art, religion, and society. This team-taught, interdisciplinary subject draws on a wide range of literary, dramatic, historical, and scientific texts and images, and involves theatrical experimentation as well as reading, writing, researching and conversing.
The primary theme of the class is to explore how England in the mid-seventeenth century became “a world turned upside down” by the new ideas and upheavals in religion, politics, and philosophy, ideas that would shape our modern world. Paying special attention to the “theatricality” of the new models and perspectives afforded by scientific experimentation, the class will read plays by Shakespeare, Tate, Brecht, Ford, Churchill, and Kushner, as well as primary and secondary texts from a wide range of disciplines. Students will also compose and perform in scenes based on that material.

The aim of this subject is to acquaint the student with some important works of systematic ethical philosophy and to bring to bear the viewpoint of those works on the study of classic works of literature. This subject will trace the history of ethical speculation in systematic philosophy by identifying four major positions: two from the ancient world and the two most important traditions of ethical philosophy since the renaissance. The two ancient positions will be represented by Plato and Aristotle, the two modern positions by Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill. We will try to understand these four positions as engaged in a rivalry with one another, and we will also engage with the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes, which offers a bridge between ancient and modern conceptions and provides a source for the rivalry between the viewpoints of Kant and Mill. Further, we will be mindful that the modern positions are subject to criticism today by new currents of philosophical speculation, some of which argue for a return to the positions of Plato and Aristotle.

This course examines the modern definition of freedom, and the obligations that people accept in honoring it. It investigates how these obligations are captured in the principles of our political associations. This course also studies how the centrality of freedom plays out in the political thought of such authors as Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Burke and Montesquieu, as well as debating which notions of freedom inspire and sustain the American experiment by careful reading of the documents and arguments of the founding of the United States.
This course is part of the Concourse program at MIT.

Philosophical Thought: across cultures and through the ages, is an open-educational resource (OER) to be used as a collection of readings for introductory philosophy courses. The objectives for developing and sharing this open resource are three-fold:

1. to provide a collection of philosophical works that can be used as a foundation for faculty and students to use in undergraduate philosophy courses
2. to provide a resource that is free to students
3. to provide a resource that compiles philosophical thought from a variety of cultures and eras

The works included in this book come from a wide range of sources. However, this book is indebted to Henry Imler’s editorial work on Sapienta and Phronesis, both of which are OER texts available on Pressbooks.

Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature pairs central texts from Western philosophical tradition (including works by Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, Rawls, and Nozick) with recent findings in cognitive science and related fields. The course is structured around three intertwined sets of topics: Happiness and Flourishing; Morality and Justice; and Political Legitimacy and Social Structures.

This is a module framework. It can be viewed online or downloaded as a zip file.

As taught Autumn Semester 2010/2011.

This module introduces students to the ideas of key thinkers in the history of western political thought. We look carefully at the canonical works of five thinkers in the history of political thought: Plato, Aristotle, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. The module considers the impact of these thinkers on ancient and modern political thought and practices, with reference to the different contexts in which they wrote. We consider the way in which these thinkers have approached the ‘big’ questions and ideas that lie behind everyday political life.

The module examines questions such as: What is justice? What is the purpose of government? What is the best form of government? Is the state ever entitled to restrict our freedom to do what we want? Why should we obey the state? When is it right to have a revolution?

Module Code and Credits: M11001 (10 credits) M11151 (15 credits)

Suitable for study at: Undergraduate level 1

Dr David Stevens, School of Politics and International Relations

Dr Stevens' research is focussed primarily within the area of contemporary normative political philosophy. Specifically, he is concerned with issues of socio-economic justice within liberal democratic societies.

Modules taught: Social Justice (level 3); War and Massacre (level 2); Justice Beyond Borders: Theories of International and Intergenerational Justice (level D).

Areas of Research Supervision: Social justice; educational; justice; Rawlsian political philosophy. In particular, David Stevens encourages applications for PhD topics in the following areas: Social justice and schooling; State education and the rights of minority cultures. Political liberalism and the creation of civic virtue; Reflective equilibrium/moral constructivism.

United States Government: The Basics of Government Function, Structure, and ProcessDeborah Smith Hoag, Remix Lead AuthorRichard Fonte, Remix AuthorGlen Krutz, Content Lead - OpenStax VersionSylvie Waskiewicz, Lead Editor/OpenstaxCover Photo Attribution:  Carol M. Highsmith (2007) Library of Congress

This migrant agricultural worker’s family might find participating with government difficult when daily life is a struggle. Does socioeconomic status affect civic participation? (Credit: Dorothea Lange; Library of Congress Collection)