Global Justice
University of Oregon, Winter 2010, PHIL 399
Instructor: Colin Koopman
Course Meetings: Mon & Wed 2.00p-3.50p in Peterson 105
Office Hours: Mon 11.30a-1.00p & Tues 1.00p-2.00p in PLC 333 & by appt.
Course Overview:
This course is intended as an advanced discussion of central philosophical problems of global justice with a focus on distributive justice in the context of global inequality. No prior engagement with philosophical work in global issues is required, but a background in the basics of moral philosophy and/or political philosophy will be useful as will previous coursework concerning globalization in other disciplines. The central questions in this course will be: What, if any, obligations do we have to the global poor? What justifies those obligations? When do they apply? What are the bounds and limits of citizenship? Can citizenship be global? Our primary focus in the first half of the course will be central texts at the heart of the current debate between the Cosmopolitans who think that we citizens of rich democracies have moral obligations to the global poor and the Nationalists who think that our primary moral obligations are to our fellow citizens only. In the second half of the course we will consider works that are among the recent and best contributions to the literature in the vein of a Pluralist-Transnationalism which aims to articulate new political conceptions appropriate to our changing global situation. In the final week of the course we will turn from readings by prominent philosophers to work by Contemporary Anthropologists who aim to solicit our attention on the very concept of the global itself. Questions we will address at this closing juncture include: What is globalization? What was nationalization? What does the transition from one of these to the other imply?
Requirements:
1. Participation (25%)
1(a). In-Class Discussion (12.5%). You must attend class and contribute to discussions. We are going to take full advantage of our small class size and run this course as a seminar--this means intensive discussions and keen participation on the part of all seminarians.
1(b). In-Class Questions (12.5%). You must come to every class session with 1 or 2 discussion questions prepared for that meeting. Questions should be drawn from that session’s reading. You must bring in a printed copy of your questions which you will leave with me at the end of every session (these will be graded on a pass/fail basis and late questions will not be accepted).
2. Brief Research Report (25%) on either: a) a nonprofit organization involved with some aspect of globalization, or b) a book by an anthropologist, sociologist, or historian concerning some aspect of globalization, or c) an article outlining some core topic of concern in global justice debates (e.g., environmental pollution, terrorism, labor exploitation, the internet). You should aim for a concise and informative piece of writing only about 2 full pages in length. (N.B.: See list of 'Global Justice Organizations' at bottom of page.)
3. Short Argumentative Essay with an extended annotated bibliography (25%). You will write a short 5-6 page argumentative essay with an accompanying annotated bibliography mapping out a program of further research. The essay itself need only engage with our primary readings but you are expected to go the library and research additional secondary readings. This essay will be due (both hardcopy and electronically) approximately two weeks before the end of the term. I will give you extensive written feedback on your paper (and we can also schedule an office meeting if you like). You will be expected to revise your essay by expanding it into a longer final research essay due at the end of the term.
4. Final Research Essay (25%). You will write a final research essay about 9-11 pages in length. This is expected to be a revision of, and improvement upon, your short argumentative essay, as noted above. This essay should engage with one or more of the central themes of the course, some of our assigned primary literature, and relevant secondary literature that you find on your own.
Texts:
Please purchase the two books listed below (they are available at the UO DuckStore) and bring them to every class session in which we are consulting those texts—all other readings will be made available by way of email.
- Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (W.W. Norton)
- Nancy Fraser, Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World (Columbia University Press)
Reading and Seminar Schedule:
The Beginning of the Debate: The Morality of Global Inequality
Utilitarian Approaches to Global Inequality
We 1/6
- Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” [pdf]
Recommended: John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism
Recommended: Peter Singer interview on Philosophy Talk about global poverty
Recommended: Peter Singer video interview on global poverty
Kantian Approaches to Global Inequality
Mo 1/11
- Onora O’Neill, “Lifeboat Earth” [pdf]
Recommended: Immanuel Kant, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
The Crux of the Contemporary Debate: Cosmopolitan & Nationalist Approaches to Global Justice
Political (rather than Moral) Conceptions of Justice
We 1/13
- John Rawls, Justice as Fairness, pp. 1-26, 39-57 [pdf]
[Rawls Lecture Notes]
Recommended: John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, 3-53
Recommended: Samuel Scheffler, “Cosmopolitanism, Justice, and Institutions”
Mo 1/18
[No Class for MLK Day]
Basic Structure Cosmopolitanism & Interaction Cosmopolitanism
We 1/20
- Charles Beitz, “Justice and International Relations” [pdf]
- Charles Beitz, “Cosmopolitanism and Global Justice”[pdf]
- Thomas Pogge, “What is Global Justice?” [pdf]
- Thomas Pogge, “World Poverty and Human Rights” [pdf]
Recommended: Samuel Scheffler, “Conceptions of Cosmopolitanism”
Recommended: Jürgen Habermas, “Does the Constitutionalization of International Law Still Have a Chance?”
Recommended: David Held, “Rethinking Democracy in the Age of Globalization”
Allegiance Nationalism & Coercion Nationalism
Mo 1/25
- David Miller, “The Ethics of Nationality” [pdf]
- Thomas Nagel, “The Problem of Global Justice” [pdf]
- Michael Ignatieff, “The Narcissism of Minor Difference” [pdf]
Recommended: John Rawls, The Law of Peoples
Recommended: Samuel Scheffler, “The Conflict Between Justice and Responsibility”
Recommended: Thomas Hurka, “The Justification of Nationalist Priority”
Recommended: David Miller, “Against Global Egalitarianism”
Recommended: Michael Blake, “Distributive Justice, State Coercion, and Autonomy”
**[Research Reports due Wed., Jan. 27 (Wed. of Week 4) in Class and by Email]
The Reframing of the Debate: Toward Pluralist-Transnationalist Conceptions of Global Justice
Pluralistic Cosmopolitanism in Liberalism
We 1/27
- Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism, pp.xi-xxi, 1-31
Mo 2/1
- Appiah, pp. 33-86
We 2/3
- Appiah, pp. 87-114
Mo 2/8
- Appiah, pp. 115-174
We 2/10
- Carol Gould, Approaching Global Justice through Human Rights [doc]
- [Special Meeting with Pamela Endzweig, Director of Collections, University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History on NAGPRA]
Recommended: Carol Gould, Globalizing Democracy and Human Rights (pp. 1-10, 46-49, 50-74)
Recommended: Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom
Recommended: Martha Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice
Recommended: Archon Fung, “Recipes for Public Spheres: Eight Institutional Design Choices…”
Recommended: Joshua Cohen and Charles Sabel, “Global Democracy?”
Recommended: Helena De Bres, “The Many, Not the Few: Pluralism About Distributive Justice” (forthcoming)
Recommended: Michael Goodhart, Democracy as Human Rights
Pluralistic Cosmopolitanism in Pragmatist Critical Theory
Mo 2/15
- Nancy Fraser, Scales of Justice, pp. 1-29
We 2/17
- Fraser, pp. 30-47
Mo 2/22
- Fraser, pp. 48-99
We 2/24
- Fraser, pp. 100-141
Mo 3/1
- James Bohman, Democracy Across Borders (selections, pp. 1-59) [pdf]
Recommended: Kate Nash, ed., Transnationalizing the Public Sphere: Nancy Fraser Debates Her Critics
Recommended: Nancy Fraser, “Reframing Justice in a Globalizing World”
Recommended: John Dryzek, “Transnational Democracy”
Recommended: Frank Cunningham, “The Global Public and Its Problems”
Recommended: Judith Butler and Gayatri Spivak, Who Sings the Nation-State?
Recommended: Eduardo Mendieta, Global Fragments
Recommended: Seyla Benhabib, The Claims of Culture. Equality and Diversity in the Global Era
**[First Short Essay due Wednesday, Mar. 3 (Wednesday of Week 9) in Class and by Email]
The Next Move in the Debate?: Toward a Re-Conceptualization of Globalization
Anthropological Re-Conceptualizations
We 3/3
- Aihwa Ong & Stephen Collier, “Global Assemblages, Anthropological Problems” in Ong & Collier (eds.), Global Assemblages [pdf]
- Paul Rabinow, “Midst Anthropology’s Problems” in Ong & Collier (eds.), Global Assemblages [pdf]
Mo 3/8
- James Clifford, “Prologue: In Media Res” to Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late 20th c. [pdf]
- Anna L. Tsing, “Introduction” to Friction: An Ethnography of Global Connection [pdf]
Philosophical Re-Conceptualization
We 3/10
- Colin Koopman, “Statism, Pluralism, & Global Justice” [pdf]
Recommended: Collier and Lakoff, “On Regimes of Living” in Global Assemblages
Recommended: Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization
Recommended: Jonathan Xavier-Inda and Renato Rosaldo (eds.), The Anthropology of Globalization: A Reader
Recommended: James Ferguson and Akhil Gupta (eds.), Culture, Power, Place: … Critical Anthropology
Recommended: James Ferguson and Akhil Gupta (eds.), Anthropological Locations: Boundaries and Grounds…
Recommended: Manuel Castells, The Rise of The Network Society
Recommended: Ryan Trecartin, K-Corea Inc. K (Section A) at
Recommended: Phil Collins, dünya dinlemiyor at
**[Final Essay due Monday, Mar. 15 (Monday of Exam Week) by email]
Global Justice Organizations
The following is a list of global justice organizations which the students in this course produced research reports on in late January. This makes for an interesting cross-section of some of the themes, problems, and debates we are working on in this course.