COURSES

Some of the most contentious debates in American politics involve competing claims about individual rights guaranteed and protected by the U.S. Constitution. In this class, our readings and discussions will be oriented around two questions: What are the rights that the Constitution protects, and how are these protections enforced? We will begin by considering protections for rights in the original Constitution and the first ten amendments before exploring the significance of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1868. We will then turn our attention to modern constitutional rights controversies, and our primary focus will be on the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections for “life, liberty, and property” and its insistence that every person be afforded the “equal protection of the laws.”

This course introduces the interdisciplinary cluster of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. It introduces some of the key intellectual tools from each of these disciplines, and shows how they can be used together to shed light on important theoretical and practical debates in morality, economics, and politics. Topics to be discussed include the nature and justification of property rights, the uses and limits of market prices in coordinating economic activity, the role of government regulation in correcting market failure, and the ethical dimensions of economic growth, exploitation, and repugnant transactions. In addition, the course provides students with the tools they need to understand and apply causal inference to a wide variety of policy issues.

Examines civic conflicts and controversies, with a view to understanding their root causes. Readings from classic and contemporary texts on political theory, ethics, and practice.

Examines what humans can know, how they reason, what thinking is, and how humans communicate to persuade others. Readings in logic, epistemology, and rhetoric include classical writers such as Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian as well as modern and contemporary thinkers and leaders, with emphasis on case studies of effective persuasion.

Examines the roots of American institutions and practices from ancient times (Greek city-states, the Mosaic law, Roman politics), medieval practices and institutions, English constitutional history (Magna Carta, Glorious Revolution), and the Enlightenment (Locke, Montesquieu, Sydney). The American colonial experiment in self-government. The Revolution, the Articles of Confederation, and the Constitutional convention.

Examines classical liberal thought as it relates to political and economic liberty. Investigates how classical liberal ideas about political and economic liberty influence the modern development of democracy and capitalism. Explores potential tensions between democracy and capitalism. Studies empirical evidence and classic writings on relationship between democracy, capitalism, and human flourishing.

Investigates the nature, grounds, and consequences of moral excellence in political communities. Close reading of classical texts (such as Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, Aquinas), contemporary philosophical analysis (such as Foot, Anscombe, MacIntyre), results of scientific research, and reflections on history, biography, and literature (such as Shakespeare, Austen). Attention to application to contemporary problems.

This course will examine the political thought of prominent African American abolitionist and reformer Frederick Douglass. It will cover material from Douglass’s early years as an enslaved person, his entrance into freedom, and his rise to becoming the most prominent African American orator of the nineteenth century. This will entail a detailed study of Douglass’s various works including his three autobiographies along with speeches and writings spanning approximately five decades. While Douglass is most well-known for his powerful denunciations of chattel slavery, this course will show that Douglass’s thought covered numerous subjects as part of his conception of America as a multiethnic society. The overall goal of the course is to construct a comprehensive account of Douglass’s political thought from disparate sources—a necessity since Douglass’s political project is not fully contained in any singular text. This account will be grounded in his view that human beings are by nature free and meant to live together in a political society. In addition to his work against slavery, this course will examine Douglass’s constitutional thought, his opposition to proposals for colonization, and his advocacy for a practical and philosophic education to prepare a human being to live as a free citizen.

This course involves the close reading of primary texts that have shaped or that reflect deeply on American democracy, including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.

This course involves the close reading of primary texts that have shaped or that reflect deeply on American democracy, including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.

This course involves the close reading of primary texts that have shaped or that reflect deeply on American democracy, including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.

This course involves the close reading of primary texts that have shaped or that reflect deeply on American democracy, including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.

This course involves the close reading of primary texts that have shaped or that reflect deeply on American democracy, including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.

Examines the relationship between theology (both revealed and natural) and political theory in the Western world. The political significance of theological ideas such as the proposition that all human beings are created equal; that all human beings are created in the image of God; beliefs in divine providence and judgment; metaphysical foundations of natural law and free will.

Introduces statistical methods to students majoring in civics. Emphasizes concepts and applications. Assumes no previous knowledge of statistics and only a minimal mathematical background. Examples and exercises rely on a variety of real data to explain key concepts, such as sampling distributions and conducting basic data analyses.

This course will examine the nature of executive power and their expression in the American Presidency through a review of the Constitution, Supreme Court cases, and historical practice.  It will then evaluate the exercise of executive power by discussing strategic choices made by presidents and other executives.

In 2021, inflation in the United States rose above 5% for the first time in decades. The return of inflation caused economic, social, and political concerns. The inflation’s effects are widespread, and its causes are difficult to understand. Rising prices affect every member of society and can be especially devastating to families struggling to afford groceries, gas, and other necessities. Unsurprisingly, people suffering the ill effects of inflation want policymakers to do something to address it. But what can be done? What is both economically effective, politically feasible, and democratically legitimate? We will explore these questions in historical context, considering the many different approaches to stabilizing prices in United States history and the controversies that have surrounded them.

This course introduces the interdisciplinary cluster of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. It introduces some of the key intellectual tools from each of these disciplines, and shows how they can be used together to shed light on important theoretical and practical debates in morality, economics, and politics. Topics to be discussed include the nature and justification of property rights, the uses and limits of market prices in coordinating economic activity, the role of government regulation in correcting market failure, and the ethical dimensions of economic growth, exploitation, and repugnant transactions. In addition, the course provides students with the tools they need to understand and apply causal inference to a wide variety of policy issues.

Moral goodness and badness are the goodness and badness that apply to human action and, in some way, also to the human agents who perform them. Thomas Aquinas’s (1225-1274) ethical theory fundamentally relies on those notions. On Aquinas’s view, understanding what it is for an action to be good or bad is crucial for understanding what it is for a human being to be good or bad, what it is for certain character dispositions to be virtuous or vicious, and what is the nature of the moral standards that apply to human action as such. In this course we will explore Aquinas’s account of the goodness and badness of actions, considering mainly some central passages of his Summa Theologiae. Aquinas’s approach to ethics is grounded in his metaphysics—what “goodness” and “badness” are in general—and it builds upon a theory of the human mind—what it is for a human agent to act and to act on the basis of thought. We will thus consider ethical, metaphysical, and psychological questions in tandem.

This course helps students to develop personal and professional mission and values statements for future leadership ambitions, after exploring elements of moral psychology and philosophy, emotional intelligence, character development, the formation of communal and personal identities, the purpose and practice of commercial activities from the vantage point of five spiritual traditions, practical examples of institutions applying missions and values (both successfully and unsuccessfully), ideas regarding meaning-making, measuring our success in life, creating a life purpose, and giving voice to our values. The question at the center of the course is whether we can live professional and personal lives that do not conflict, but rather work in concert with the economic dimensions of institutions, especially if we find ourselves leading others in these organizations.

The course is organized in three sections. In Section I (Virtue, Moral Psychology and Decision-Making, Identity Formation, Emotional Intelligence, Character Development, and Leadership), we will discuss the forces that form societal ethics, character development, and leaders, sometimes unconsciously. In Section II (Moral Philosophy, Ethics, and Economics), we will explore the intersection of moral values, ethics, and economic practices in relation to different spiritual traditions. In Section III (Defining Mission and Values as Leaders), we analyze some of the major social forces acting upon leaders of all institutions and read about meaning-making in organizations. The course conclusion involves developing a personal and institutional mission and values statement.

This course will examine the economics and ethics of wealth creation, studying phenomena such as market competition, institutions of private and public property, trade regulation, and globalization. More broadly, how do people create wealth? How do societies enable people to create wealth? Are some ways more ethical than others? Why do some societies grow rich while neighboring societies remain poor?

Salient topics in micro and macroeconomics are surveyed to better understand human flourishing. The goal of the course is also to develop critical thinking, writing, and communication skills. Students will regularly participate in small group learning activities, classroom demonstrations, a class wide trading pit, experiments, Kahoots and puzzlers.

The Policy Research Laboratory (PRL) is a semester-long course in statistics, econometrics, and data science to learn the tools necessary for policy and social science research. In parallel, the students will apply these tools to real-world data and answer crucial policy questions. Policy research is important, and appropriately using data, cutting-edge statistical tools and remaining skeptical are equally important.

Students can expect to leave this class with a deep understanding of policy questions and a toolbox for evaluating them.

This course involves the close reading of primary texts that have shaped or that reflect deeply on American democracy, including the Declaration of Independence, The Federalist Papers, and Tocqueville’s Democracy in America.

Happiness is often understood as feeling good about yourself, increasing your material resources, or some combination of the two. Historically, philosophically, and scientifically, though, happiness is a deeper notion rooted in multiple factors related to fulfillment, potential, and progress.

The third unalienable right in the Declaration of Independence, “the pursuit of happiness,” is grounded in a rich tradition of thought about human flourishing. While not all in agreement, the best writers on happiness, going back at least to Aristotle, generally discovered common elements to human happiness. The best recent research in psychology, economics, and social science has confirmed much of these classical notions of happiness and discovered new elements about human flourishing, as well. We will read both classic texts about happiness and the recent research findings. We will discuss how understanding happiness is essential to being a good leader.

Unfortunately, most leaders learn about happiness through hard experience, if they do at all, because they were never exposed to the history and science of it. By the end of the course, you will be equipped with knowledge and practices aimed at increasing your own happiness, and to encourage it in others both in your personal life and the professional workplace.

This course examines the history of ideas of democracy in the Western world from ancient Athens to the 21st century United States. Particular focus will be given to using historical context to understand the perils and strengths of democratic government. Seminar sessions cover ancient times (Greek city-states, Mosaic law, the Roman Republic), medieval thought and institutions (Magna Carta, conciliarism, canon law), early modern democracy (Renaissance civic humanism, Reformation, English republicanism), Enlightenment (Locke, Montesquieu, American Founding), and modern democracy (Civil War, Reconstruction, universal suffrage, global expansion of democracy in the 20th century).