Upcoming Events

  Salon Description: Is Big Tech too big?  Do companies like Facebook and Google have too much power?  Do they stifle competition?  The Federal government and many states sued each company, arguing that consumers would be better served if Facebook and Google were broken up. Join this PPE salon, led by Professor Jeff Spinner-Halev, to discuss the anti-trust issues at stake in these lawsuits.To prepare for this salon, please listen to the following two short podcasts, links below. Google podcast; Facebook…

Joshua Cohen (UC Berkeley and Apple University), and Matt Zwolinski (University of San Diego) via Zoom Event Description: In March 2020, the landscape of work was transformed for most American workers. Many people lost their jobs. Others were furloughed, or had their benefits reduced. Those who stayed in the workplace were asked to work under new constraints and in a new landscape of risk. Those who had their work move online were required, at the same time, to learn to…

  Judy Fudge (McMaster University), and Gina Schouten (Harvard University) via Zoom Event Description: Many research groups and news outlets have warned that the pandemic is having an unequal economic effect on women and men. Studies are still underway, but some of the initial data is striking: for example, four times as many women dropped out of the US labor force in September 2020 as men. Reasons cited include a reduced availability of child-care and increased domestic burdens. Studies of…

John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice is widely regarded as one of the most significant and influential works of political philosophy from the 20th century. In this work, Rawls develops a comprehensive theory of justice. But somewhat surprisingly, Rawls does not say much about race or racial injustice. Is this omission problematic? Can Rawls’s theory be deployed to understand racial injustice, and can it help us in the goal of achieving a more racially just society? In this session of…

Lisa Herzog (Groningen University) and Brian Berkey (The University of Pennsylvania) via Zoom Event Description: The end of 2020 was sweetened somewhat by news that scientists had created multiple effective vaccines for COVID-19. On receiving this news, states moved rapidly to confront the next major hurdle in the battle against the pandemic: the mass production and distribution of vaccines. Programs of public immunization are already underway in countries fortunate enough to enjoy access to the limited supply of vaccines. But…

PPE Spring Author Series: Elizabeth Anderson: Norms of Political Discourse Our current political discourse has become toxic, especially when it comes to discussing fraught issues such as racism and sexism. Given a background commitment to democracy, what norms of communication with our fellow citizens should we adopt when discussing such fraught issues? In this session of the PPE Author Series, we will discuss this question with Professor Elizabeth Anderson, a preeminent scholar of social & political philosophy, feminist philosophy, and…