Course Description
Examination of the contemporary theoretical and philosophical literature regarding the nature, justification, and practical implications of egalitarian justice. The focus is on introducing graduate students to the major theoretical approaches to egalitarian justice and designing research questions relating to theoretical and practical aspects of the subject.
Athena Title
THEORY OF EQUALITY
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students completing Theories of Equality will be given the skills needed to read an advanced theoretical literature in a critical and intelligent fashion, and to employ this literature in order to pursue their own empirical and formal research. The course will focus on the formal and substantive approaches employed to design, justify and implement egalitarian thought. It will be taught through a mixture of lectures and seminar discussion.
Topical Outline
I. Introduction Overview of major approaches to egalitarian justice Overview of substantive research issues in egalitarian justice Egalitarian justice and strategies of justification How to conceptualize/formulate valid arguments relating to egalitarian justice II. Substantive Issues Central Issues: Impartiality, Moral Arbitrariness, Responsibility Central Concerns: expensive tastes; heterogeneity; incompleteness General Methods of Justification: balancing concerns regarding arbitrariness and responsibility; defining fundamental egalitarian concerns III. Designing Research Questions Assessing Quality of Life The problem of competing moral concerns Conflicts between liberty and equality Defining a currency of egalitarian Justice: welfare, resources, opportunity for welfare; opportunity for resources, or capabilities?