The focus of social and political philosophy has been steadily expanding beyond its initial focus on the ethical assessment of individual political societies such as modern nation-states to include questions of global justice and the place of the nation-state in the larger global order. In this course we will examine, from a critical, philosophical perspective, some fundamental questions about the nature of social justice.
First we will examine the basis of the social contract approach to social justice. Many have argued that social justice should be conceived of as a kind of agreement among citizens about how society ought to be organized.We will read John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, the most important work of political philosophy in the second half of the twentieth century. Rawls provides philosophical foundations for liberal democratic constitutionalism and an egalitarian conception of distributive justice on the basis of a social contract among persons in fair circumstances. We will explore questions about the reasons for thinking of justice in terms of a social contract, who is to be included among the persons who are to agree on principles, what are fair circumstances of agreement, and how we know what principles people will agree on.
Second, we will look at an important contemporary critique of the social contract approach. Martha Nussbaum takes issue with Rawls’s social contract view by questioning his view of who is to be included among those whose agreement is sought. She criticizes the social contract tradition as failing to include the disabled among those whose agreement is sought. As a consequence the social contract cannot deal with questions about justice for the disabled. She also argues that the social contract focus on the nation-state as the principal subject of justice must give way to a global or cosmopolitan conception of social justice. She argues for a different conception of justice on the basis of an Aristotelian conception of the dignity of persons.
Third, we will examine an approach that defends making the nation-state the main subject of justice, as opposed to the world as a whole, while still taking seriously the fact that the nation-state is in a larger ethically demanding environment. David Miller criticizes the cosmopolitan approach to justice saying that nation-states have the principal responsibility for justice. But Miller does not ignore the fact that members of nation-states have obligations to persons throughout the globe. He develops a conception of the nature and basis of human rights; he explores the ethically defensible limits nation-states may impose on immigration into their territories; and he elaborates a conception of the ethical responsibilities people have to the global poor.
Monday, August 25th: Introduction
Wednesday, August 27th--Rawls on the Nature and Foundation of Justice
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Chapter 1
Monday September 1st, no class
Wednesday September 3rd
Rawls, Chapter 1 continued
Monday September 8th: The Two Principles of Justice
Rawls, Chapter 2
Wednesday September 10th
Rawls, Chapter 2 continued
Monday September 15th: The Original Position
Rawls, Chapter 3
Wednesday September 17th: The Arguments for the Two Principles from the Original Position
Rawls, Chapter 3 continued
Monday September 22nd: Questions about Equal Liberty
Rawls, Chapter 4 to p. 194
Wednesday September 24th: The Nature of Goodness as Rationality
Rawls, Chapter 7 to p. 380
Monday September 29th: The Argument for the Two Principles from Stability: The Sense of Justice
Rawls, Chapter 8 to p. 420
Wednesday October 1st: The Argument for the Two Principles from Stability: The Good of Justice
Rawls, Chapter 9, §§ 78, 79, 85, 86, and 87
Monday October 6th: Rawls on International Society
Rawls, pp. 331-333
Wednesday October 8th: Nussbaum and the Limits of Social Contract Theory
Martha Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice, pp. 1-35
Monday October 13th: The Social Contract Tradition
Nussbaum, pp. 35-54
Wednesday October 15th: Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach
Nussbaum, pp. 69-96
Monday October 20th: The Social Contract Approach to Disabilities
Nussbaum, pp. 108-140
Wednesday October 22nd: Nussbaum and the Capabilities Approach to Disabilities
Nussbaum, pp. 155-179
Monday October 27th: Nussbaum and the Capabilities Approach and Public Policy
Nussbaum, pp. 179-211
Wednesday October 29th: Nussbaum and the Social Contract Approach to International Justice
Nussbaum, pp. 224-238, 255-272
Monday November 3rd: Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach to International Justice
Nussbaum, pp. 273-298
Wednesday November 5th: Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach Continued
Nussbaum, pp. 298-324
Monday November 10th: Miller and the Critique of Cosmopolitanism
David Miller, National Responsibility and Global Justice, Chap. 1
Wednesday November 12th: Miller’s Criticism of Cosmopolitanism
Miller, Chap. 2
Monday November 17th: Miller’s Criticism of Global Egalitarianism
Miller, Chap. 3
Wednesday November 19th: Concepts of Responsibility
Miller, Chap. 4
Monday November 24th: National Responsibility
Miller, Chap. 5
Wednesday November 26th: Inheritance of National Responsibility
Miller, Chap. 6
Monday December 1st: Miller on Human Rights
Miller, Chap. 7
Wednesday December 3rd: Miller on Immigration and Territory
Miller, Chap. 8
Monday December 8th: Miller on the Relief of Global Poverty
Miller, Chap. 9
Wednesday December 10th: Miller Concluding
Miller, Chap. 10
In addition to lectures on Monday and Wednesday, there will be a discussion section for undergraduates every Friday. Undergraduates will be required to write three six to seven page papers, and they are required to attend the discussion sections every Friday.
Graduate Students will be required to write two ten page papers or one twenty page paper. They will be excused from the Friday discussion sections for the undergraduates. There will be a special weekly graduate student section at a time and place to be worked out. A couple of days before each of these special sessions, students will write one to two page discussions of a topic of their choice relating to the readings and lectures of the week. Some of these short papers will be the focus of discussion in the special sessions.