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GRADUATE SEMINAR
ETHICS AND PUBLIC
POLICY
The policy arena
is doubtless a source of moral
dilemmas:
what ought we to do about
employment
and inflation, taxation and
social services, industrial
development and the environment,
abortion, assisted suicide,
capital punishment and a whole
lot of others? Solutions that
are acceptable to all interested
parties are almost impossible
to come by. This is the nature
of moral issues. Yet they invite
and indeed demand solutions,
and this is where philosophical
intervention is required.
For
in some cases, the real problem
may not be the issues themselves
but the differences in the
way we conceptualize them. When
conceptions get muddled,
philosophical analysis in
needed
to untangle them. This is
a
prerequisite for an adequate
resolution of the real problems,
and it is one important role that
philosophy plays in public
policy debate.
In this course,
we will focus on a particular
moral issue:
social and economic justice.
Philosopher Rawls once asserted
that justice is the first
order
of social systems as truth
is
the first order of conceptual
systems. This is true to a
large extent. For an unjust
social arrangement breeds unrest:
where there is no endeavor
to answer during the course
of this seminar. To do that,
we will look at various answers
that have been provided, including
the liberal, the libertarian,
the Marxist, the Communitarian
and the Africana perspectives.
The main objective of the course
is to familiarize participants
with the major theories of justice
and to encourage them
to interrogate the theories,
identify problems and proffer
answers. It is expected that
at the end of the course, each participant
will have an adequate understanding
of all the theories.
2 short papers, 1 presentation
and a term paper on any aspect
of the seminar. The topic for
the term paper will be cleared
with the instructor by October
7. Every seminar participant
will attend every session,
do all assignments, including
reading ahead of class and
participate actively in class.
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