Professional and Lifelong Learning

Course description

What is a just society? What do we owe one another as citizens? What is a good life? These questions, long debated by philosophers, arise with special urgency at a time of pandemic and racial reckoning. The course explores these questions by considering how philosophers have tried to answer them, and by debating contemporary issues—in politics and everyday life—that prompt us to ask questions such as, what is the right thing to do? Topics include controversies about equality and inequality, individual rights and the common good, the role of government and markets, and competing conceptions of identity and community. Cases include ethical questions arising from the pandemic and recent debates about racial justice.