PPE Speaker Series: “Are Cooperatives More Virtuous than Corporations?” with Joseph Heath (University of Toronto)

Join us in Caldwell 105 on Tuesday, February 4 at 6:30pm! This event is free and open to the public. There will be a Q&A session and pizza following the lecture!

Abstract: “There are several sectors of the economy in which cooperatives have flourished, competing successfully against standard business corporations. The best explanation for their success is that they provide superior benefits to their members. The question that will be the focus of this talk is whether cooperatives also provide important benefits to society, such that non-members should prefer a cooperative economy to one dominated by business corporations. It has often been suggested that cooperatives are more virtuous, because they are more democratic, less hierarchical, less anti-social, and less apt to produce economic inequality. My goal will be to evaluate these claims. The central challenge stems from the observation that cooperatives are not nearly as different from corporations as is commonly assumed.”

Joseph Heath is professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, where he was formerly the director of the Centre for Ethics. He also teaches at the School of Public Policy and Governance. Heath’s work “is all related, in one way or another, to critical social theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School.” He has published both academic and popular writings, including the bestselling The Rebel Sell, which he coauthored with Andrew Potter. His philosophical work includes papers and books in political philosophy, business ethics, rational choice theory, action theory, and critical theory.