Reason & Rationality 2026 Princeton Summer Program
Students in grades 8 - 12 are invited to apply. Students who attend both sessions get the full experience, priority in enrollment and tuition discount.
We are pleased to introduce the Reason & Rationality 2026 Princeton Summer Program:
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Session 1: June 7th - June 19th
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Session 2: June 21st - July 2nd
Each week-long session will bring together students for deep conversations about the biggest ideas in Philosophy, Policy and Economics in a series of informal and convivial salons with an approximately 5:1 student-instructor ratio. Students will live in the college dorms with their instructors. The animating philosophy of Reason & Rationality is that relationship and conversation are the font of the intellectual life.
Reason & Rationality 2026 Princeton Summer Program Topics
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The Value of a Human Life (cost benefit analysis, present value discounting, the significance of future generations)
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Utilitarianism and The Veil of Ignorance
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Basic Logic, Intellectual Virtues, Properties of Arguments
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Moral Realism and Moral Relativism
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The Trolley Problem
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Supply and Demand
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COVID Lockdowns and Ice Cream Cones (total and marginal utility, opportunity cost)
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Private Property and Prices
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Complex Systems, Emergent Properties, and the Mystery of Consciousness
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Norms Unlike our Own (primogeniture, bride price, dowries, indissoluble marriage, cousin marriage)
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Base Rates and the Base Rate Fallacy
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Selection Bias, Social Desirability Bias
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Preference Falsification and Self-Deception
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Harry Frankfurt on Bullshit
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Bayes’s Rule
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Do You Live in a Simulation?
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Rationality, Rationalism and Pascal’s Wager
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The Conceptual Analysis of “Liberal” and “Conservative”
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Science Fiction and Philosophy: Life Extension and Universal Basic Income
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The Ethics of Selling Human Organs and Babies
*An Advanced Section for Repeat Students from 2025 Program to be shared later*
Questions About the Reason & Rationality Vision for Conversation-Based Education?
Check out the frequently asked questions on our website or reach out to Reason & Rationality at info@reasonandrationality.com.