PHIL 4470 - Topics in Social and Political Philosophy

(crosslisted) AMST 4655 , GOVT 4655 , SOC 4430  
(KCM-AS)      

Topic:  Inequalities: Economic, Political, Social, & Racial

An investigation of the nature and moral significance of some major U.S. inequalities and proposals to reduce them:  unequal political influence, unequal opportunity, the extreme concentration of income and wealth at the top, the persistence of stark racial inequalities, inequalities in education, and the interaction of disadvantages in sustaining poverty. Six meetings of the seminar will be led by eminent figures in the study of these inequalities: Benjamin Page (Political Science, Northwestern), Miles Corak (Economics, Ottawa), David Grusky (Sociology, Stanford), Prudence Carter (Education, Stanford), Cecilia Rouse (Economics, Princeton), Karl Alexander (Sociology, Johns Hopkins).  In other weeks, the seminar will investigate controversies over social justice, democratic values, hierarchy, domination and freedom that shape the proper response to these inequalities, as well as studying further social inquiries.