Philosophy 290-7

This course is designed as a workshop for the presentation and discussion of work-in-progress in moral, political, and legal theory. The central aim of the course is to provide an opportunity for students to engage directly with philosophers, political theorists, and legal scholars working on normative questions. Another aim is to create a space that brings together people from different disciplines who have strong normative interests or who speak to issues philosophers and theorists should know something about. Toward this goal, we will devote a few sessions to featuring the work of economists, historians, psychologists, sociologists, and other social scientists.

The format of the course will be as follows. For the first two hours of the course, a student will lead off with a 15-minute comment on the presenter’s paper and the presenter will have 5-10 minutes to respond before we open up the discussion to the entire assembled group. The first two hours will be open to non-enrolled students and faculty who wish to participate in the workshop discussion. At the end of the two hours, those who are not enrolled will leave, and for the third hour of the course, the guest presenter will continue the discussion with students enrolled in the course. Enrolled students must serve as a discussant for at least one presenter’s work-in-progress and write several short response papers and a final paper of 15-20 pages.

The course is room-shared with the Law School and the Political Science Department. This course will follow the Law academic calendar. The first class meeting is August 28 and the the final class meeting is December 4.

(Link to Law School Calendar: https://www.law.berkeley.edu/php-programs/courses/academic_calendars.php)

Schedule:

8/28 Intro meeting (for enrolled students only)

9/4 Robert Cooter, UC Berkeley Law

9/11 Melvin Rogers, UCLA Political Science

9/18 Edward Miguel, UC Berkeley Economics

9/25 Alison McQueen, Stanford Political Science

10/2 Derrick Darby, University of Michigan Philosophy

10/9 Jacob Levy, McGill Political Science

10/16 Seana Shiffrin, UCLA Law and Philosophy

10/23 Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago Law & Philosophy

10/30 Jiwei Ci, University of Hong Kong Philosophy

11/6 Ori Aronson, Bar-Ilan University Law & Berkeley Visiting Professor

11/13 Avani Sood, UC Berkeley Law

11/20 Amy Allen, Penn State Philosophy

12/2 Final meeting (N.B. This is a Wednesday. For enrolled students only.)