phil c156. Topics in political philosophy: liberty, equality, and property
A. J. Julius [julius@humnet.ucla.edu; office hours Wed. 3:30-5 in Dodd 383]
Tiffany Teeman Blase (TA) [ttb@humnet.ucla.edu; office hours Wed. 3-5 in Dodd 330]
Stephen White (TA) [white@humnet.ucla.edu; office hours Mon. 1-3 in Dodd 371]
This is a class on liberty, equality, and property. We’ll consider two main problems. How do equality and liberty fit together in a defensible conception of political values? What is the moral status of private property claims and of the market exchange that takes place on their basis? These two problems are connected by the appearance that liberty and equality are at odds with respect to the place of markets and private property in a just society.
The written work for the course is three 5-page papers, due on Oct. 26, Nov. 21, and Dec. 11. Each counts for a third of the final grade.
schedule of topics and readings
Sept. 28 Introduction. Nozick's entitlement theory
no reading
Oct. 3 More on the entitlement theory
Robert Nozick, “Distributive justice,” pp. 44-61
Oct. 5 Can a property system arise without anyone’s rights being violated?
Allan Gibbard, “Natural property rights”
Oct. 10 Self-ownership and the entitlement theory
G. A. Cohen, “Self-ownership, world-ownership, and equality”
Oct. 12 Are self-ownership and equality compatible?
Cohen, “Are freedom and equality compatible?”
Oct. 17 Exploitation and self-ownership
Cohen, “Marxism and contemporary political philosophy,” pp. 144-152
Justin Schwartz, “What's wrong with exploitation?,” pp. 158-164
Oct. 19 Exploitation and unfreedom
Cohen, “The structure of proletarian unfreedom,”
Justin Schwartz, “What's wrong with exploitation?,” pp. 164-188
Oct. 24 Liberty and the moral case for markets: provisional conclusions
T. M. Scanlon, “Liberty, contract, and contribution”
Oct. 26 Desert and the moral case for markets: a digression
Serena Olsaretti, from “Liberty, desert, and the market”
Oct. 31 Rawls' two principles of justice
John Rawls, A theory of justice, sections 1-3, 11-14
Nov. 2 Arguments for the difference principle
Nov. 7 Arguments for the difference principle, continued
Brian Barry, Theories of justice, sections 26-28
Robert Nozick, “Distributive justice,” part II
Nov. 9 The priority of liberty
Brian Barry, “John Rawls and the priority of liberty”
T. M. Scanlon, “A theory of freedom of expression”
Nov. 14 Liberty and the incentives justification of inequality
Cohen, “Incentives, inequality, and community”
Nov. 16 TA lecture
Topic and readings tba
Nov. 21 Limits to equality in Nagel’s division of moral labor
Thomas Nagel, Equality and partiality, pages tba
Nov. 28 TA lecture
Topic and readings tba
Nov. 30 Dworkin against liberty/equality conflict
Ronald Dworkin, “Do liberal values conflict?”
Dec. 5 Liberty and the market in Dworkin’s equality of resources
Ronald Dworkin, “The place of liberty”
Dec. 7 A different integration of liberty and equality
Julius, “Solve jointly for liberty, equality, and democracy”
(This plan is tentative. To lighten your load, some of the readings listed for later weeks will be cut.)
last update: Oct. 15