Phil 385: Philosophy of Political Economy

What is legitimate governance, and equally importantly, even we can agree on the nature of government, how should the force and benefits of government be distributed? This term we will focus on the issues of rights and property. The ultimate goal is to do some hard thinking about the nature of legitimate government (including what that means) and the foundational claims required to justify any particular conception of the same. This task will also provide us with a convenient excuse to sharpen our philosophical skills. At the end of the course we will focus on libertarian conceptions of legitimate government and the arguments such thinkers advance.