We live in a deeply divided society. Political debate about issues like immigration, political correctness, and gun control seems interminable. How should we respond to these deep divisions?

In philosophy, we respond to disagreement by seeking out the arguments for each side and evaluating them rationally. In this course, we examine disagreements about whether abortion should be legal, whether people have a right to health care, and what the minimum wage should be. We will also focus on disagreements around race by asking whether confederate monuments should be removed, whether companies and universities should practice affirmative action, and whether racial profiling is ever justified. For each of these issues we will consider arguments from both the political right and left, and ask questions about the nature of that deeper disagreement: What makes liberals and conservatives so different? Is there any possibility of common ground? And is it possible to evaluate not just individual arguments, but the deeper political worldviews which animate them?

It is easy to have an opinion about many of these issues; most of us already do. But this course is about something more difficult: learning to argue rationally for our opinions, revise them when we can’t, and fairly consider the arguments of those we disagree with. This happens rarely in political discourse today; mutual understanding is hard and progress is rare. But both are worth working for, and that is our aim in this course: to learn how to think about political arguments fairly, rationally, and productively.

Intended Audience:

All components of the course will be online.

Class Format:

Lectures will be posted synchronously in Canvas.