Académique Documents
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Woodrow Wilson School, Dept. of Politics, University Center for Human Values
WWS370/POL308/CHV301 ~ FALL 2017
http://blackboard.princeton.edu
Please contact Woodrow Wilson School Academic Program Coordinator Jan Burch with precept
scheduling issues (jburch@exchange.princeton.edu).
In this course, we examine a number of basic moral controversies in public life, including many
of those central to Americas 2016 presidential campaign and politics globally. Is the use of
torture against terrorist suspects ever morally justified? What are the moral responsibilities of
public officials, soldiers, and citizens in times of war and insecurity? Do people have a moral
right to the money they earn and inherit or should government redistribute wealth and resources
to secure social justice? What justifies marriage as a civil institution and who should be able to
marry? Should governments restrict immigration very poor foreigners to raise the wages of
poorer citizens? Who is a refugee and what are our moral obligations to them? When can we
justifiably intervene in the affairs of other states?
The course aims to help students think, speak, and write clearly about public moral
controversies. Each week we identify important moral problems and controversies, and analyze
them with the help of the assigned readings. How should we resolve ethical controversies in a
way that is publicly justifiable, or at least think clearly about them? One of the purposes of this
course is to encourage reflection about how one should participate not only as a political
leader, but also as a citizen in decision-making about the challenging ethical issues that
inevitably face a democratic society. In precept, in addition to reviewing and discussing each
weeks reading material, we will be putting this skill into practice. Students will be expected not
only to have completed all of the weeks required reading (at the minimum), but will be expected
to be prepared to engage thoughtfully in precept discussions and debates. Given the subject
matter, we expect lively discussions and perhaps some vigorous disagreements, but it should go
without saying that students should be able to listen as well as they speak, and to disagree
respectfully.
Part of the lecture periods will be devoted to class discussion. I want to hear from all of you, so
please do the reading for each class and finish all of the weeks reading before precepts; bring
the readings to class and precept. Please email me your suggestions on readings or topics.
No computers. Research now supports what common sense has long suggested: that note taking
by hand tends to promote deeper understanding than the use of laptops. 1 In addition, laptop
multitasking has become increasingly distracting to teachers and students. Students generally do
better your performance and grades will be improved with no electronics in the classroom
and precepts: and students who have taken the course agree! Please print out the readings and
bring hard copies with you to lectures and precepts: take notes by hand and save everything in
binders or some other way. Of course, however, any student with special needs should be in
touch with the professor and an accommodation will be made.
Plagiarism: There will be zero tolerance for plagiarism and other forms of academic
misconduct. Please re-familiarize yourself with the universitys information on academic
integrity, e.g. at http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/academic-integrity-2016.pdf
We want to help all students avoid these problems: so please come to us with questions.
PLEASE NOTE: New and revised assignments along with important announcements
concerning the course will be posted on Blackboard; please check it frequently. This syllabus
will be updated periodically. We will circulate important messages by email as well.
Readings: Required readings listed immediately after each lecture date, below. Required and
most recommended readings, other than those in the books for purchase, are on Blackboard
under Weekly Readings. Please finish the readings before the lectures so you can participate
and bring copies of required readings with you.
Required Books: Books required for this course: Michael Walzers Just and Unjust Wars, John
Rawls A Theory of Justice, revised edition (Belknap Press, 1999). We may add another. All are
available for purchase at Labyrinth Books on Nassau Street. Copies of the books will also be
placed on reserve at Stokes Library and Firestone.
Course Requirements and Grading: Your final grade will be composed as follows:
Participation 20%; First Paper 15%; Midterm 15%; Second paper 25%; Final Exam 25%.
The first very short (4-5 pages) paper, due Friday, September 29 at 5pm, will be on the
ethics of torture. The second longer (6-8 pages) paper will be on the material in part III, on
moral issues surrounding immigration, and due around Thanksgiving (exact date TBA). Class
and precept attendance are mandatory. Late papers will be graded down one-third of a grade for
every two days late; please supply a note from the infirmary in event of illness. Let us know in
advance if you need to miss a precept or class for any reason: we will help you make other
arrangements (attend another precept).
We encourage students to discuss course material outside of class and precepts. However, you
should prepare your own notes on course readings (essential for preparing for lecture
discussions, precepts, papers and exams) and also draft your own papers and exam answers. You
should not collaborate in drafting and writing your papers and answers.
1
See recommended reading Week 1.
2
Excellent Resource: If you are confused or just curious about the philosophical concepts
discussed in the class, or about the ideas of major thinkers such as Locke or Rawls, an excellent
online resource is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://plato.stanford.edu/. It
includes entries on a wide range of topics, including utilitarianism, consequentialism, John
Rawls, rights, human rights, just war, etc., and also Moral Dilemmas (relevant to the Intro
week) and the Original Position (week 5). It is an excellent supplement.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Intro Week and Week 1: Moral Dilemmas, Dirty Hands and Torture
Required Readings:
Sept. 19:
Public Committee Against Torture v. Israel, 1999 (edited)
Documents: Interrogating detainees, US Government, Read at least 60-65, the
rest recommended.
Alan Dershowitz, Want to Torture? Get a Warrant
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Want-to-torture-Get-a-warrant-2880547.php
Charles Krauthammer, The Truth about Torture, The Weekly Standard (2005)
Krauthammers factual premises now appear quite wrong. Like the Dershowitz
proposal, his essay has drawn many responses. Here is one by Andrew Sullivan:
http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/12/10/the-truth-about-torture-revisited/
[Probable: Mark Danner, Our State of Exception, NYRB Oct. 13, 2011 (esp.
from section 2 to the end).]
Sept. 21: Presentation and Discussion with Guest Professor Jeff McMahan
Jeff McMahan, Torture in Principle and Practice Public Affairs Quarterly 2008
http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=210
George W. Bush, Decision Points (2010), 168-181 only (rest is recommended)
Now What? Should Bush Administration Officials Be Prosecuted Or?
Required are entries by Soufan, Sands, and Broder, the rest recommended.
Matthew Alexander, Tortures Loopholes, Op-Ed, The New York Times, Jan.
10, 2010, p. A39: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/opinion/21alexander.html
3
Law Review, vol. 105, no. 6 (October 2005), 1681-1750.
Jed Rakoff, Terror and Everybodys Rights, NYRB Sept. 16.
Bernard Williams, Politics and Moral Character (in Moral Luck).
Christopher Hitchens, Believe Me, Its Torture, Aug 2008 Vanity Fair.com
o http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/08/hitchens200808
Mark Bowden, The Dark Art of Interrogation, Atlantic Monthly, October 2003;
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/10/bowden.htm
David Sussman, Whats Wrong with Torture, Phil & Pub Aff (2005) v.33, no 1, 1-33
Henry Shue, Torture, Philosophy and Public Affairs, v. 7 #2 (1978), pp. 124-143
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2264988
Machiavelli, The Prince, chapters 15-19, 25
Sept. 28: Concluding Discussion of US Government torture policy with visiting experts.
- Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: Study of the CIAs Detention and
Interrogation Program: Foreword, and summary Findings and Conclusions (First 17 pages),
then, in the report itself, skim or read the first 49 pages, giving the history and background,
including origins of the SERE techniques, and the treatment of Abu Zubaydah).
Recommended:
- Kim Lane Scheppele, Hypothetical Torture in the War on Terrorism
- Emily Hafner-Burton and Jacob Shapiro, Human Rights Abuses and
Counterterrorism Cooperation
Background/Suggested Readings
- P.W. Singer, Do Drones Undermine Democracy?
- Scott Shane, The Moral Case for Drones. Sunday NYT
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-moral-case-for-drones.html
- Omar S. Bashir, Who Watches the Drones? Foreign Affairs
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2012-09-24/who-watches-drones
- Nicholas Wheeler, Dying for Enduring Freedom: Accepting Responsibility for
Civilian Casualties in the War Against Terrorism highly recommended
- The Ethics of Killing in War Philosophia (2006, abridged version)
- Mark Bowden, The Killing Machines: How to Think About Drones Atlantic Sept 2013:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/09/the-killing-machines-how-to-think-about-
drones/309434/
For sources on targeted killing:
- http://www.law.upenn.edu/academics/institutes/ilp/targetedkilling/reading.html
For work by Jeff McMahan, access at his Rutgers web page:
http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=210
War, Terrorism, and the War on Terror
o Torture, Morality, and Law
4
o Torture and Methodology in Political Philosophy,
http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/dmdocuments/Torture%20and%20Methodology%20in%2
0Moral%20Philosophy.pdf
o The Just Distribution of Harm Between Combatants and Noncombatants, Philosophy
and Public Affairs 38, no. 4 (Fall 2010): 342-79. The Ethics of Killing in War (longer
version, 2004)
- Jonathan Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives, chapters 6 and 7
- Robert K. Fullinwider, Terrorism, Innocence, and War, Philosophy and Public Policy
Quarterly; http://www.puaf.umd.edu/IPPP/reports/fall,%20vol%2021,%202001/222984.pdf
- J.S. Mill, A Few Words on Non-Intervention
- Samuel Scheffler, 1995, Individual Responsibility in a Global Age, Social Philosophy and
Policy, vol. 12, pp. 219-236
Required Reading
Oct. 3:
- John Locke, Second Treatise of Civil Government (1690) Ch. 5 Of Property (chs 2, 9
11 recommended); also required: paragraph 42 from Lockes First Treatise.
o Locke reading can be found on blackboard, or downloaded from online library
of liberty http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=222
o For more on Locke and Nozick see Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, on line
- Thomas Paine, Agrarian Justice
- Suzanne Mettler and John Sides, We are the 96 Percent
Oct. 5:
- Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, The Minimal State, Distributive Justice,
and Equality, this is pp. 26-35, 149-164 (skip the section Sens Argument), 167-182,
and 232-238.
Short news/opinion stories on taxes and fairness:
- Jared Bernstein, Tax Fairness, Washington Post.
- Who Pays Taxes? Citizens for Tax Justice
Two articles on Warren Buffet, inheritance, and taxes:
- http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/14/us/dozens-of-rich-americans-join-in-fight-to-retain-
the-estate-tax.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm (Make sure you go beyond the jump)
- Here's another: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/stop-coddling-the-super-
rich.html?_r=1
o Please also have a look at Massey and Denton, and also Mendelberg et al., below.
Background/Suggested Readings
Douglass Massey and Nancy Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the
Underclass, esp. pp. 9-23, 32 - top of 38, 44-57, 74-78, highly recommended.
Stephen Macedo, Property Owning Plutocracy, from Justice and the American Metropolis
Tali Mendelberg, et al., College Socialization and the Economic Views of Affluent Americans
5
AJPS 2016. Highly recommended.
Roland Benabou, Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics, esp. pp. 699-706 and
Conclusion, highly recommended:
http://www.princeton.edu/~rbenabou/papers/beliefs%20qje%201%20web.pdf
D.W. Haslett, Is Inheritance Justified? Philosophy and Public Affairs
L. Murphy and T. Nagel, The Myth of Ownership, esp. pp. 31-37 (Oxford Scholarship online,
accessible through Princeton University Library).
http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.ezproxy.princeton.edu/view/10.1093/0195150163.001.0001/a
cprof-9780195150162-chapter-2
Paul Krugman, For Richer, New York Times Magazine, October 20, 2002
Milton Friedman, Role of Government in a Free Society
For more on Locke and Nozick see Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, on line
Jennifer Hochschild, Facing Up to the American Dream, Chap. 1, 15-37
G.A. Cohen, Capitalism, Freedom, and the Proletariat.
Iris Marion Young, Residential Segregation and Regional Democracy, Inclusion and
Democracy, pp. 196-235.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, excerpt: Who Is John Galt? (the culminating speech of this 1200 page
novel, which was required reading in Paul Ryans congressional office).
Thomas Nagel & L. Murphy, Inheritance, The Myth of Ownership: Taxes and Justice
Samuel Freeman, Illiberal Libertarians: Why Libertarianism isnt a Liberal View, Philosophy
and Public Affairs 30:1 (Spring 2001)
Oct. 12
- Will Kymlicka, Utilitarianism, in Contemporary Political Philosophy.
Background/Recommended Readings
Peter Singer, Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Bernard William, The Human Prejudice (Philosophy as a Humanistic Discipline)
Thomas Nagel, The Fragmentation of Value
Sagoff, Mark, The Allocation and Distribution of Resources in Economy and the Earth (1988),
pp. 50-73.
Robert Goodin, Utilitarianism as a Public Philosophy.
Scanlon, Contractualism and Utilitarianism, in The Difficulty of Tolerance: Essays in Political
Philosophy, (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 138.
Philip Pettit Consequentialism in P.Singer, ed. A Companion to Ethics, Blackwell, `91.
Sen, A. and B. Williams, Eds. (1982). Utilitarianism and Beyond. Introduction, pp. 1-21.
Oct. 19
Rawls, Theory of Justice, sections 48, 51 and 52, 69, 76-77
Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) v. State of New York
Background/Recommended Readings
Jonathan Kozol, Still Separate, Still Unequal, Harpers, Sept. 2005, pp. 41-54.
Christopher Jencks, Whom Must We Treat Equally for Education Opportunity to Be Equal?
Ethics (1988), pp. 518-533
Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron.
Iris Marion Young, Five Faces of Oppression, in Justice and the Politics of Difference.
Ken Binmore, Justice as a Natural Phenomenon, Think Vol. 8, Issue 22, 6/2009, 7-23.
F.A. Hayek, The Atavism of Social Justice, New Essays in Phil., Pol, and Economics
Philippe Van Parijs, Why Surfers Should be Fed: The Liberal Case for an Unconditional Basic
Income, Philosophy and Public Affairs 20 (Spring 1991)
T.M. Scanlon, The Diversity of Objections to Inequality, in The Difficulty of Tolerance
Required Readings
November 7: Free Movement vs. Collective Self-Determination
o Joseph Carens, "Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders," The Review of
Politics 49 (Spring 1987) 251-73.
o Reread the Singer selection from week 4, One Community, from One World,
and this time pay close attention to pp. 176-85.
7
(2008). SKIP the Appendix; just read to page 56
- Stephen Macedo, The Moral Dilemma of American Immigration Policy: Open
Borders vs. Social Justice?
Recommended Reading:
Henry Shue, Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence, and US Foreign Policy (2d ed,
1996), chs. 1 & 2.
Background/Recommended Readings
- Macedo, What Self-Governing Peoples Owe One Another, 2004.
- Rawls, The Law of Peoples, preface & Part I (pp. 3-58), & Part II, sections 15-18 (pp. 105-128).
- Joseph Carens, Migration and Morality: A Liberal Egalitarian Perspective.
- Robert Putnam, "E Pluribus Unum?" (on immigration, diversity, and social trust)
- David Miller, Immigration and Territorial Rights, from National Responsibility and Global Justice
(Oxford Univ Press 2007)
- Michael I. Blake, Distributive Justice, State Coercion, and Autonomy, 30 Philosophy and Public
Affairs 257 (2001).
- Howard Chang, Economics of Immigration.
- Christopher Wellman, "Immigration and Freedom of Association" in Ethics (Oct. 2008)
- Nicholas Kristoff, defending sweat shops (see also the video):
o http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/opinion/15kristof.html?_r=1&em
- Richard Miller, "Cosmopolitan Respect and Patriotic Concern" Philosophy and Public Affairs or
"Moral Closeness and World Community" in the Ethics of Assistance
Robert Keohane, Stephen Macedo, and Andrew Moravcsik, Democracy-Enhancing Mulitilateralism,
International Organizations, Winter, 2009.
Henry Shue, Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence, and US Foreign Policy (2d ed, 1996), chs. 1
& 2.
Charles Beitz, Cosmopolitan Ideals and National Sentiments, The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 80, No.
10, Part 1 (Oct., 1983), pp. 591-600.
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Henry Shue, The Burdens of Justice, The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 80, No. 10, (Oct., 1983), pp.
600-608.
Week 10: Sexual Autonomy: Duties, Goods, and the Limits of Liberty
Nov. 30: David Velleman, Family Histories on biological parenthood and childrens
rights.
December 5:
- Statements of Attorney general Jeff Sessions
- Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, excerpts
- Tommie Shelby, Dark Ghetto, excerpt.
~ end