Course Meeting Times
Discussion groups: 1 session/week, 1.5 hours/session
Prerequisites
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Course Description
Welcome to Experiential Ethics! Through weekly 90-minute discussion groups, you’ll have the opportunity to explore ethical and social issues related to your own experiences—whether these are projects you’re working on, internships, future goals, or your experiences at MIT. Each discussion group will be led by a graduate teaching fellow (TF), and you will have short assignments to guide you through your ethical exploration, as well as a final project. Fundamentally, the class is driven by you: we want you (as a discussion group and as an individual) to explore these issues as you want to explore them, with our help and guidance along the way. All of us on the teaching team are excited to work with you this summer.
This course runs alongside 24.133, which is a less intensive version of Experiential Ethics. You will participate in a final showcase with classmates from 24.133.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, you will be able to do the following:
- Identify your personal values and challenges you might face, such as in the workplace
- Identify and critically evaluate ethical dimensions of real-world situations from current events to your own life
- Explain philosophical concepts including ethical lenses, stakeholders, value-laden choice points, and structural injustice
- Communicate and defend your own ethical perspectives on real-world issues to different audiences
- Recognize and critically evaluate the social and political dimensions of your personal decision-making, scientific inquiry, and technology design
- Advocate for a real-world ethical decision facing a community you participate in
Course Overview
Please note that every class discussion session starts on the hour (not 5 minutes past) and is a full 90 minutes long. Details are subject to change—your TF will communicate in advance.
Module 1 (Weeks 1–3): Intro to Ethics and Ethical Lenses
- Week 1 : Introduction to ethics, contrasting normative claims with descriptive/positive claims, and providing a broad overview of the five ethical lenses.
- Week 2: Focuses on the effective altruism movement and its relationship to the “consequences” lens.
- Week 3: Introduces the Ethics Protocol, a structured procedure for analyzing ethical dimensions and lenses in product design.
Module 2 (Weeks 4–5): Values in Science, Technology, and Design
- Week 4: Examines values in science and technology, encouraging you to critically assess the claim that these fields are objective or value-neutral.
- Week 5: Extends themes from week 4 by exploring discriminatory design and the concept of social construction.
Module 3 (Weeks 6, 7, 9; week 8 is project workshopping): Scaling Up to Social Structures & Systems
- Week 6: Introduces concepts of structural injustice and contrasts individual vs. structural models of responsibility.
- Week 7: Reflect on the expectations and ideals associated with your social roles.
- Week 8: Project workshopping
- Week 9: Uses MIT’s ethical ambiguities as a case study to apply the analytical tools developed throughout the course.
Week 10: Course Wrap-Up
Time Commitment
This is a 6-credit class, which means you can expect a total time commitment (including all homework and class time) of approximately 80 hours over the term.
Academic Integrity
We take academic integrity very seriously. If you’re in doubt about what counts as a breach of academic integrity, get in touch with your TF or refer to the Academic Integrity Handbook. If academic dishonesty is proven, there will be severe disciplinary consequences, which may include any or all of the following: a redo of the assignment for a reduced grade; failure on the assignment; failure of the course; a letter in the student’s file in the Office of Student Citizenship; or referral to the Committee on Discipline. If you’re tempted to plagiarize, it’s always better to speak to your TF, the course leaders, your advisor, academic deans, or another trusted authority on campus who can help you.
Inclusivity
MIT values an inclusive environment. Experiential Ethics seeks to foster community, collaboration, and respectful dialogue within discussion sections and across the course. We welcome individuals of all backgrounds, beliefs, ethnicities, national origins, gender identities, sexual orientations, religious and political affiliations—and other visible and nonvisible differences. All members of the class are expected to contribute to a respectful, welcoming, and inclusive environment for every other member of the class.
Assessment and Grading
24.134 is graded A/B/C/etc. The grading distribution is as follows:
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Attendance and participation | 30% |
| Pre-session assignments | 10% |
| Op-ed assignment | 10% |
| Advocacy assignment | 10% |
| Independent project | 40% |
For details on the assignments noted above, see the Assignments section.
Participation
Participation is central to Experiential Ethics. We want you to work through ethical issues together with your peers, which requires participation. Your participation grade will not just be determined by the amount you participate, but also the manner. On the first day of class, the members of your discussion group and your TF will create ground rules for discussion. In addition to your contributions in discussion sections, your participation grade will also reflect your completion of the midterm and end-of-term evaluation forms.
