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Human obligations towards one another

Course 21.01 at MIT (Compass Course: Love, Death, and Taxes: Cultivating Personal Values and Managing Dissonant Perspectives) focuses on helping students form their personal values and learn effective strategies for handling varying viewpoints.

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The question at hand explores the extent of mutual obligations we hold towards one another.
The question at hand explores the extent of mutual obligations we hold towards one another.

Human obligations towards one another

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a new course is challenging students to grapple with some of life's most profound questions. The Compass Course (21.01), titled "Love, Death, and Taxes: How to Think — and Talk to Others — About Being Human," is a multidisciplinary pilot class designed to help students wrestle with fundamental human questions such as "What do we value (and why)?" and "What do we owe to each other?"[1][3]

This innovative course, part of the Compass Initiative led by faculty from the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS), aims to assist students in developing their own values and navigating conflicting viewpoints by using the humanities and social sciences as a guide. It encourages reflection on moral and civic responsibilities alongside technological and scientific advancement.[1]

In the Compass Course, students are invited to explore questions about value, merit-based societies, the universality of language, the philosophy of truth and knowledge, and even debate what humans owe each other. The course takes a "flipped classroom" approach, with students watching recorded lectures at home and coming to class for discussions and debates.[2]

Each student is assigned a persona from a 1976 Cambridge City Council hearing debating recombinant DNA research, allowing them to argue different sides from their assigned perspectives. This exercise encourages students to negotiate with those who have different values and come to a resolution that respects everyone involved.[1]

One student, Kayode Dada, a second-year mechanical engineering major, took the course to fulfill a communications-intensive requirement and for cross-departmental exposure. However, he found the course to be more than just that, helping him grow as a person. Initially feeling stuck, Kayode reoriented his values after the exercise, identifying practicing Christianity, hard work, helping others, and contributing to society as central to his belief system. This led him to choose to volunteer at a robotics camp for kids in Louisville.[1]

The course ends with debates about what humans owe each other, including a class on taxation and climate burdens designed by Nobel laureate Esther Duflo. The MIT Compass Podcast engages in fundamental questions with guests from across the MIT schools of Science and Engineering.[2]

Plans exist to adapt the residential version of the Compass Course for online learners on MITx. The course is supported by the MIT Human Insight Collaborative's SHASS Education Innovation Fund and receives philanthropic support from MIT Corporation life member emeritus Ray Stata '57.[1]

Lily L. Tsai, the Ford Professor of Political Science and lead faculty for the Compass Course, aims to help students use humanities and social sciences to shape their personal values and society. By fostering critical thinking and dialogue skills to engage respectfully and thoughtfully with diverse perspectives on core human and social issues, the Compass Course empowers students to think about the kind of humans they want to be and the type of society they want to help create, especially given the accelerating pace of change fostered by technology developed at MIT.[1]

In summary, MIT's 21.01 Compass Course helps students address deep questions of value and obligation, develop their own moral compass, and improve their ability to thoughtfully navigate and communicate across conflicting viewpoints through a multidisciplinary humanities and social sciences framework.[1][2][3]

  1. At MIT, the Compass Course in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) is designed to help students grapple with fundamental human questions.
  2. The course is part of the Compass Initiative led by MIT faculty, encouraging students to develop their own values and navigate conflicting viewpoints.
  3. Students are invited to explore questions about value, merit-based societies, and the universality of language, among others, in a "flipped classroom" approach.
  4. Each student is assigned a persona from a 1976 Cambridge City Council hearing, allowing them to argue different sides from their assigned perspectives.
  5. One student, Kayode Dada, found the course helpful in personal growth, reorienting his values and choosing to volunteer at a robotics camp.
  6. The course ends with debates about what humans owe each other, including a class on taxation and climate burdens designed by Nobel laureate Esther Duflo.
  7. The MIT Compass Podcast engages in fundamental questions with guests from across the MIT schools of Science and Engineering.
  8. Plans exist to adapt the residential version of the Compass Course for online learners on MITx.
  9. The course is supported by the MIT Human Insight Collaborative's SHASS Education Innovation Fund and receives philanthropic support from Raymond Stata.
  10. Lily L. Tsai, the Ford Professor of Political Science and lead faculty for the Compass Course, aims to help students shape their personal values and society.
  11. The course fosters critical thinking and dialogue skills to engage respectfully and thoughtfully with diverse perspectives on core human and social issues.
  12. Ultimately, the Compass Course empowers students to think about the kind of humans they want to be and the type of society they want to help create, especially given the accelerating pace of change fostered by technology developed at MIT.

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