Freedom, Markets, and Well-Being PPE 160 Fall 2024

The Course

In this course, we bring together scholarship from philosophy, politics and economics to study the philosophical underpinnings and social institutions of contemporary American society and the world in which it operates. Working across disciplinary boundaries, we examine scholarship that seeks to describe the liberties, freedoms and safeguards that promote human flourishing and that looks carefully at the roles played by market economies and political institutions in the construction of contemporary society.

One goal for the course is to prepare PPE majors to write their senior theses in the spring. Concrete work on the thesis is required at regular intervals throughout the term and the final project is a thesis prospectus. (Students from departments that do not require a thesis are invited to chat with us about a suitably modified assignment.) Another goal is to spend our sessions synthesizing work in the three disciplines of philosophy, politics, and economics. This year, our focus will be on inequality. We will ask what economists, philosophers, and political scientists have to say about inequality and how work in one area is related to that in the others.

The syllabus (PDF) has a schedule of topics for discussion, readings, and assignments; it also describes the standards for grades and other policies for the class. Registered students can find all other materials on Canvas.

The Classes

Tue, Aug 27
First Day
Thu, Aug 29
Sample Theses and Prospectuses
Tue, Sep 3
Locke on Property
Thu, Sep 5
Gibbard on Locke
Tue, Sep 10
Locke and Slavery
Thu, Sep 12
Ostrom on Public Goods
Tue, Sep 17
Piketty on Inequality
Thu, Sep 19
Darity on Inequality
Thu, Sep 19
Alesina on the Plow
Tue, Oct 1
Currie on Inequality at Birth
Thu, Oct 3
The Capabilities Approach
Tue, Oct 8
Thesis Updates
Thu, Oct 10
Thesis Updates
Thu, Oct 17
Rawls’s Difference Principle
Tue, Oct 22
Dworkin’s Auction
Thu, Oct 24
Dworkin and the Social Safety Net
Tue, Oct 29
Williams on Equality
Thu, Oct 31
Rational Irrationality
Tue, Nov 5
How Democracies Die
Thu, Nov 7
Prof. Menefee-Libey Presents
Tue, Nov 12
Partition Law
Thu, Nov 14
Effective Altruism
Tue, Nov 19
Presentations
Thu, Nov 21
Presentations
Sun, Nov 26
Work Day
Tue, Dec 3
Class Picture