Institute for Ethics & the Common Good

why now

The rare permission to slow down

In a time defined by rapid change and polarized viewpoints, the Institute offers something increasingly rare: the opportunity to slow down and think deeply. More than an advanced course sequence, it is a community of scholars committed to thoughtful inquiry and meaningful dialogue, where students learn to analyze arguments, weigh competing perspectives, and articulate their ideas with clarity and nuance.

The program emphasizes active participation, respectful dialogue, and the development of independent, well-reasoned thinking.

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Where great minds disagree

THE ARGUMENTS THEMSELVES

The Institute does not survey ideas from a safe distance. It stages the arguments. Students read Plato against Aristotle, Jefferson against Madison, Orwell against Lenin, and set John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Peter Singer against one another on the nature of justice and what we owe each other.

To do that well, students draw on the analytic tools of the social sciences, economics, sociology, psychology, and political science, alongside the humanities, history, art history, literary analysis, and philosophy. The tools serve the questions, never the other way around.

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The best discussions are the ones where students challenge one another with respect, change their minds, or leave still thinking about the question. That's when I know real learning is happening.

Dr. David Allyn

Director, Avenues Institute for the Advanced Study of Ethics and the Common Good

over 3 years

From Athens to this morning's headlines

The Institute traces the debate over the common good from the classical world to the present day.

Institute for Ethics & the Common Good | Avenues - 3 years

Year 1: Foundations

Students begin with the foundational texts and the thinkers who set the terms of the argument, building the historical grounding that makes contemporary debate intelligible.

Year 2: American studies

An in-depth study of American intellectual and political history, examining how a society argues with itself about what it owes its members.

Year 3: The present and the capstone

A sustained exploration of contemporary debates, alongside the capstone. Guest speakers, field trips, and research projects run throughout, so college-level texts meet the world outside the classroom.

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Ideas, tested against the world

THE CAPSTONE

The program culminates in original work grounded in real-world inquiry. Students pursue a senior thesis informed by interviews with contemporary leaders, and capstone paths have included shadowing an organizational leader, convening a public symposium on a political question, and creating an original creative work in response to the themes of the Institute.

Graduates leave exceptionally well prepared for the demands of top-tier universities and equipped with the habits of mind needed to participate thoughtfully in an increasingly complex world.

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