PPR459: Ethics and Governance

Objectives

Governance, as practiced by states and by other institutions, raises many deep philosophical questions. This course investigates some of them by close reading and discussion of some small number of recent and/or classic works in the broad sub-discipline of political philosophy, to be chosen in consultation with those taking the course.

Possible texts include, for example:

• James Griffin, Well-Being
• Daniel Haybron, The Pursuit of Unhappiness
• Susan Hurley, Justice, Luck, & Knowledge
• Martha Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice
• Onora O'Neill, Bounds of Justice
• Joseph Raz, The Morality of Freedom
• Erik Olin Wright, Envisioning Real Utopias
• Iris Marion Young, Justice & the Politics of Difference

Our chosen texts may cover topics including, for example:

• The nature and scope of social justice
• The nature, content, and justification of individual rights
• The nature of the public good and its weighting in relation to considerations of rights and social justice
• The nature and proper limits of individual liberty
• Justice and gender
• The ethics of truth-telling and justified deception
• The ethics of confidentiality and the preservation of anonymity
• The ethics of loyalty and whistle-blowing
• The sources and justification of organizational authority
• The attribution of responsibility both to individuals and to corporations
• The nature and normative demands of individual well-being 

Select Bibliography:

Colin Farrelly, An Introduction to Contemporary Political Theory (Sage 2003)

Robert E. Goodin & Philip Pettit eds, Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Anthology (Blackwell 1997): Parts 2, 3, 4 & 5

Dudley Knowles, Political Philosophy (Routledge 2001)

Will Kymlicka, Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2002)

Hugh LaFollette ed., Ethics in Practice: An Anthology (3rd edn, Blackwell 2006): Parts 3 & 4

John Rawls, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (2nd edn, Harvard University Press 2001)

Adam Swift, Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians (Polity 2001)

Jonathan Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy (Oxford University Press 1996)

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