PHIL 330 - Seminar in Ethics & Theory of Value

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2016/17a: Capital, Volume One. This seminar conducts an in-depth study of the first volume of Karl Marx’s Capital. Jamie Kelly.

Prerequisites: at least three courses in Philosophy.

Topic for 2016/17b: Capitalism, Globalization, Economic Justice and Human Rights. This seminar focuses on questions about capitalism, globalization, and economic justice. A central project of this course is to understand the different ways in which capitalism is conceptualized by various thinkers and philosophical perspectives. We critically evaluate the benefits and problems attributed to capitalism as a global economic system. We address debates on private property and the division of labor, and examine the functions of states, markets, corporations, international institutions like the IMF and WTO, and development agencies in economic globalization and their roles in securing or undermining human rights. We  examine some of the ecological consequences of contemporary capitalism and our own locations as consumers within the system. Readings include the works by figures such as Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Karl Polanyi, Peter Singer, Thomas Pogge, Antonio Negri, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Zygmunt Bauman. Uma Narayan. 

Topic for 2016/17b: Moral Objectivity and Moral Relativism. Can moral judgments be objectively true?  Or are there no standards of moral truth beyond the competing standards of different cultures, or perhaps of different individuals?  We read works by contemporary philosophers arguing for different answers to this question: objectivist, subjectivist, relativist.  Likely authors include: Gilbert Harman, Judith Thomson, Russ Shafer-Landua, Mark Schroeder, David Enoch. Jeffrey Seidman.

Prerequisites: two, 200-level courses in Philosophy.

One 3-hour period.