2026 Course Descriptions

Summer
 

1332 Engineering Ethics

Asynchronous Offerings: Session 1 (6 weeks), Session 1 (8 weeks), 12 Week Session

The purpose of this course is to equip engineering students with the skills necessary for resolving moral issues that are likely to arise in professional contexts. The course begins with a brief introduction to ethics and will then turns to contemporary issues in engineering ethics. Students will discuss whistleblowing, conflicts of interest, diversity in the workplace, risk and uncertainty, privacy and surveillance, sustainability, autonomous weapons systems, and the ethics of artificial intelligence.

GE: Historical and Cultural Studies Foundation
 

1500 Introduction to Logic

Asynchronous Offerings: 12 Week Session, Session 2 (8 weeks)

There are many ways to get others to believe what you say: using statistics selectively, appealing to authority figures, or triggering emotional responses. These approaches can be useful and sometimes necessary. However, they're essentially deceptive - if discovered, your audience will rightfully challenge your methods. Moreover, these tactics fail against those trained to spot them. As speakers, we want to rely on sound reasoning rather than rhetorical tricks. As listeners, we want to be able to distinguish rhetoric from reason. In this course, we'll explore what it takes to reason well and how to distinguish between good and bad arguments.

GE: Mathematical and Quantitative Reasoning (or Data Analysis) Foundation
 

2340 The Future of Humanity

Asynchronous Offering: 12 Week Session

What will life be like in a hundred, two hundred, or five hundred years? Some believe that further advances in technology will make human life unimaginably joyous and prosperous. Others have a much darker vision of our future—one in which our descendants are left with a depleted planet, and in which they face extinction at the hands of technological forces they cannot control. The future of humanity raises important philosophical and ethical questions. Why should we act more sustainably for the sake of future people? How large should the human population become? Should we use technology to enhance ourselves? Will we someday be able to transcend our physical bodies by uploading ourselves into computers—and if so, would this be a desirable thing to do? How might artificial superintelligence change human life—and could it destroy it?

GE: Sustainability Theme
 

2390 Ethics and Leadership in a Diverse World

Asynchronous Offering: 12 Week Session

In this course, students examine what is required of leaders who are also citizens in a pluralistic, democratic society. How do difference and disagreement shape leaders’ responsibilities? How do responsibilities differ within their organizations and as democratic citizens navigating broader social, political, legal, and economic challenges? Students will engage with leading scholarship on the justification of authority, democratic citizenship, morally responsible decision-making, and virtue ethics to understand how citizenship in a just and diverse society shapes our ideals and practices of ethical leadership.

GE: Citizenship for a Just and Diverse World Theme

2455 Philosophy and Videogames

Asynchronous Offering: 12 Week Session

This course examines video games from a philosophical perspective. The course explores questions such as: What is a game in the first place? Are video games art and if so, are they a distinct form of art from movies or other visual arts? Are achievements that you are awarded in video games real achievements? Do these achievements have value or are videogames largely a waste of time? Is it ever wrong to perform an action in a video game? Is it wrong for tech companies to develop and market video games that are highly addictive for users? Throughout our course, we will also examine broader philosophical issues that arise in the creation and play of videogames. For example, what can we learn from video games about the nature of personal identity or free will?

GE: Historical and Cultural Studies Foundation; and Literary, Visual and Performing Arts Foundation

2465 Death and the Meaning of Life

Asynchronous Offerings: 12 Week Session, Session 2 (8 weeks)

What is a meaningful life? What role, if any, does the afterlife play in conceptions of meaningfulness? Can things like achievement, happiness, and engaging in valuable projects give meaning to our lives?  Would immortality or an extraordinarily long life increase or decrease the likelihood of a meaningful life? The course will explore these and related questions. 

GE: Health and Well-Being Theme

2120 Asian Philosophies

Hybrid Offering: Session 2 (8 weeks): M/W 7:00p-8:35p

This class will explore the main philosophical traditions that underlie the cultures of India, China, Japan, and a number of other countries in south and east Asia. Specifically, we will work toward understanding some of the essential texts from Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and others as time permits. However, we will not be approaching these texts merely for their historical value. We will be engaging them as potential sources of wisdom and insight into the nature of the world around us and our place within it.

GE: Literary, Visual & Performing Arts Foundation; and Historical and Cultural Studies Foundation