PHIL 1385 - ETHICS AND ECONOMICS

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
Contemporary societies, at least in the West, are often characterized in terms of two basic social institutions: liberal democracy and free-market capitalism. This course explores the latter of these institutions in a philosophical context. In doing so we will discuss the nature and origins of market capitalism - free or otherwise - but our primary focus will be on the moral status of the market as a social institution. Are markets a source of personal and collective virtue or a universal ethicalsolvent that reduces men to base motivations of envy and greed? Are they a necessary foundation of individual freedom or an existential threat to personal autonomy? And is market capitalism in some sense the natural economic analogue to liberal democracy or is there a deep conflict between the ideal at work in these two forms of social life? We will begin by reading a number of classic answers to these questions, before moving on to discuss them in the context of a number of ethical issues raised by contemporary forms of capitalism. In doing so, our aim will be to move beyond simple, ideologically-motivated positions "for" and "against" market capitalism, towards a more nuanced understanding of the moral status of markets as social institutions.
Academic Career: UGRD
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: LG/SNC Elective Basis

Click here for class schedule information.

Add to Portfolio.

Close Window