Equality, Inequality, Justice: Problems of Contemporary Political Philosophy

Dozent/in	Prof. Dr. phil. Martin Hartmann
Veranstaltungsart	Hauptseminar
Code	HS191379
Semester	Herbstsemester 2019
Durchführender Fachbereich	Philosophie
Studienstufe	Bachelor Master
Termin/e	wöchentlich (Di), ab 17.09.2019, 10:15 - 12:00 Uhr, 4.B51
Umfang	2 Semesterwochenstunden
Turnus	Wöchentlich
Inhalt	A recent Oxfam Briefing Paper entitled „An Economy for the 1 %“ claims this: “The global inequality is reaching new extremes. The richest 1 % now have more wealth than the rest of the world combined.” Thomas Piketty, in his best-selling Capital in the Twenty-First Century, writes: “There is no fundamental reason why we should believe that growth is automatically balanced.” If these claims are right economic inequalities are on the rise within comparatively rich countries and between countries. But is this a problem? Are these inequalities unjust or does criticizing them just amount to envy (Hayek)? In this seminar we want to discuss these questions from a philosophical perspective that is open to political and economic arguments. We will deal with the so-called egalitarianism debate and its critique (Dworkin, Cohen, Frankfurt) and will also discuss economic arguments of a more descriptive kind (Piketty). Lastly, we will also discuss social psychological texts that claim the excessive inequalities have overall detrimental effects on a society. If possible teaching staff from the economics department or the political science department will join the course.
Voraussetzungen	Besuch von mindestens einem Proseminar in Philosophie mit abgeschlossener (benoteter) schriftlicher Seminararbeit.
Sprache	Englisch
Abschlussform / Credits	Aktive Teilnahme (Referat, Essay, Protokoll) / 4 Credits (für alle Module ohne anderslautende Angabe) Bestätigte Teilnahme und Referat, Essay, Protokoll / 3 Credits (für Modul Philosophie) Benotete schriftliche Arbeit / 6 Credits (für Modul Philosophie) Benotete schriftliche Arbeit / 6 Credits (für Modul Philosophie) Bestätigte Teilnahme und Referat, Essay, Protokoll / 3 Credits (für Modul Philosophie)
Hörer-/innen	Ja
Kontakt	bea.schuler@unilu.ch
Literatur	I. Hirose, Egalitarianism, New York 2014. R. Dworkin, Sovereign Virtue. The Theory and Practice of Equality, Cambridge/Mass. 2000. H. Frankfurt, On Inequality, Princeton 2015. T. Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Cambridge/Mass. 2014. G. Cohen, If You’re an Egalitarian, How Come You’re so Rich?, Cambridge/Mass. 2009.