Handbook

The course will examine how political philosophers have thought about the meaning of freedom, equality and justice in market societies. In this course, you will study prominent representatives of two of the most important traditions in political philosophy: liberalism and republicanism. The course will introduce you to the republican criticisms of commerce as corrupting of virtue and examine republican debates about whether economic power gives rise to domination. It will contrast these with liberal arguments that markets enhance individual freedom. You will learn about philosophical understandings of the relation of politics to economics in the work of recent liberal and republican philosophers and political theorists. Figures that the course may cover include Hannah Arendt, Friedrich Hayek, Charles Mills, Jawaharlal Nehru, Philip Pettit, J. G. A. Pocock, John Rawls, Judith Shklar, Amartya Sen and Simone Weil. You will also learn to understand and distinguish liberal and republican arguments about contemporary political and policy issues, which may include economic inequality, corporate power, racial justice, modern slavery, and labour exploitation.