Philosophy 290-7

Global Justice

There is a vigorous debate among political philosophers about whether there are norms of distributive justice that apply to the world as a whole. The primary aim of the seminar will be to take stock of this debate. In order to do this, we will need to consider a number of related issues, including the moral legitimacy of partiality toward those with whom one has special ties, the moral significance of shared citizenship in particular, the question whether principles of justice apply primarily to individuals or to institutions, the relations between justice and beneficence, and the extent to which affluent individuals have a responsibility to help alleviate poverty and suffering in distant lands. We will read the works of a number of contemporary authors, including most or all of the following: John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, Charles Beitz, Peter Singer, Richard Miller, Onora O’Neill, Thomas Pogge, Samuel Freeman, A.J. Julius, Michael Blake, Kok-Chor Tan, Garrett Cullity, Andrea Sangiovanni, Joshua Cohen and Charles Sabel, Ronald Dworkin, Mathias Risse, Brian Barry, Allan Buchanan, and Liam Murphy.