Principal Investigator Anne McCants
Co-investigators Robert Winters , Linda R Rabieh , Lee D Perlman , Paula R Cogliano , Steve Drasco
Project Website http://web.mit.edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/concourse/www/
What is the best life for human beings, both as individuals and as members of a community? Can the study of modern science shed light on this question? Can reflection on the question of the best life deepen our understanding of science? Concourse offers an opportunity to engage these questions in a profound, sustained and integrated way. Here you will encounter the greatest philosophic, scientific, literary and political minds from Plato to Einstein.
Concourse is a community of students and faculty dedicated to exploring these and other fundamental questions. We offer small classes with rigorous instruction in the science and math General Institute Requirements (GIRs). But we broaden this education by offering an equally rigorous humanities curriculum that examines such matters as the meaning of human nature, the necessary conditions for genuine liberty, the proper role of science, and the possibility of finding true happiness. We strive not only to know, but to know how we know. Ours is an empirical and epistemological enterprise. Our view is that an education of this sort will cultivate individuals who are thoughtful, truly free, and prepared to be the leaders of tomorrow.
Concourse's integrated approach will deepen an understanding of modern science by reexamining the foundations on which it is built. By studying the great tradition of Western philosophy and literature that preceded, accompanied and followed the establishment of modern science, it was born as a broad, integrated project offering a comprehensive account of all knowledge, a new conception of human nature, and a plan to reform intellectual and political life.
Concourse is animated by the conviction that educating the best minds of tomorrow requires countering the prevailing -- and growing -- fragmentation and hyper-specialization of the American university. While specialization is absolutely necessary for the sake of advanced study and success in the many fields at which MIT excels, it is not enough. To be truly educated, and to fulfill our real potential as scholars, it is not enough to know many things, or to be able to do many things, valuable as that may be. We actually have to know what those things are good for (how they nourish life and well-being), and it is the humanistic disciplines that school us for those questions.