Welcome to Ethics for Engineers!

6 UNITS: 1.082  2.900  6.9320  10.01  16.676
9 UNITS: 20.005

Engineering School-Wide Elective
Course 10 Restricted Elective
Course 20 Restricted Elective
Gordon Engineering Leadership (GEL) Program Leadership Elective

At MIT you’re learning a lot about how to engineer things.
Have you thought enough about why, and when, it’s good to do so?
Ethics for Engineers gives you a chance to explore the ethical principles by which an engineer ought to be guided.
It’s a course for everyone who will go out and modify the environment, human society, or the human body. And for everyone who wants to live a good life.

• Sections meet once per week, and feature vigorous discussion and debate
• Weekly readings include both foundational texts in ethics and contemporary engineering case studies
• We offer Regular and BE Focus versions of the course. In addition, in conjunction with the Biology Department, we now offer 7.105 Ethics for Biologists and Engineers
• Topics include Justice, Utility, Rights, Safety, AI, CRISPR, Bias, the Environment, and Human Flourishing
• Classic authors include Aristotle, Confucius, Bacon, Locke, Kant, Tocqueville, Arendt, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Can be taken for 6 units or 9 units (20.005)
• There are short weekly writing assignments, no exams or papers (except in the 9 unit version)

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Schedule for Spring 2025:

Mondays 3-5	Regular Version	Dr. Kathryn Hansen, Prof. Lauffenburger
Tuesdays 3-5	BE/Bio Focus	Dr. Peter Hansen, Prof. Guarente
Wednesdays 3-5	Regular Version	Dr. Kathryn Hansen
Wednesdays 7-9	Regular Version	Dr. Peter Hansen

First picture above: Martin Luther King, Jr., Margaret Rousseau, Aristotle, Barbara McClintock, Alexis de Tocqueville, Confucius