2019-2020
Offensiphobia
Thursday, March 5th
12:30-1:45pm
The Freedom Center Spring 2020 colloquium series presents Angelo Corlett, Professor of Philosophy San Diego State University.
We are happy to host another U of A Philosophy alumnus this semester! Angelo Corlett studied under Joel Feinberg, Keith Lehrer, Alvin Goldman, and John Pollock, and he earned his PhD here in 1992. He is now Professor of Philosophy and Ethics at San Diego State University. Professor Corlett works on a host of fascinating issues, such as racism, apology, forgiveness, responsibility, punishment, and social knowledge. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Ethics . Professor Corlett's talk will criticize "offensiphobia", i.e., the belief that academic freedom ought to be censored because of the mere offensiveness of certain kinds of expressions.
Abstract:
Offensiphobia is the widespread belief that offensive expressions ought to be prohibited and the movement to prohibit them. While offensive expressions, including hateful ones, are protected by established First Amendment law, there are a cluster of related moral arguments which render offensiphobia highly problematic. So offensiphobia, a movement which is prevalent throughout the United States of America, has inadequate grounding and must be rejected as it seeks to, or actually does, violate freedom of expression rights, especially in higher educational contexts.
We welcome faculty, students, and staff of the Philosophy and Moral Science Departments as well as members of the wider University community. RSVP to Lucy Schwarz at luciaschwarz@email.arizona.edu.
Where
Kendrick Seminar Room, Social Sciences 128
Rediscovering Moral Science
Thursday, Febuary 20th
12:30-1:45pm
The Freedom Center Spring 2020 Colloquium Series presents David Schmidtz, Kendrick Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona.
Our own Dave Schmidtz is on the program this Spring! Dave is the Kendrick Professor of Philosophy here at the U of A, founder of the Freedom Center, Eller Chair of Service-Dominant Logic in the Eller College of Management, and editor-in-chief of Social Philosophy & Policy. Check out this fun profile of Dave, which gives some background on his extraordinary career path. Dave is a leading expert in political philosophy, political economy, and environmental ethics, among other subjects (although his work is never *just* about one narrow subject but always about the bigger picture). Dave's work has been translated into 14 different languages.
We welcome faculty, students, and staff of the Philosophy and Moral Science Departments as well as members of the wider University community. RSVP to Lucy Schwarz at luciaschwarz@email.arizona.edu.
When
12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Feb. 20, 2020
Academic year
2019-2020
Where
Kendrick Seminar Room, Social Sciences 128
Poverty, the Spirit, and the History of Art
Thursday, January 23
12:30-1:45pm
The Freedom Center Spring 2020 Colloquium Series presents Robert Gordon, Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Arizona.
Robert Gordon is an Assistant Professor at the Fred Fox School of Music here at the U of A, and a Fellow at the University's Center for Buddhist Studies. He is also the Program Manager of the American Culture & Ideas Initiative, which promotes academic and public engagement with the aesthetic, philosophical, economic, and historical foundations of American society. Professor Gordon's research focuses, among other things, on Eastern art and philosophy, art and economics, and freedom and its relationship to the fine arts.
Abstract:
The problem of poverty continues to be a perennial one for civil societies around the globe. It has been addressed by sociologists, political scientists, philosophers, theologians and spiritual leaders, artists, economists, and many others. The issue is both a material and spiritual one, impacting one’s financial and psychological well-being. Yet, can aesthetic considerations play any role in better understanding the challenge of poverty in the world? This talk considers the extent to which the history of art can contribute to the ongoing dialogue. It explores various areas where art historical ideas intersect with current notions surrounding the topic of poverty. It maintains that the history of art can provide valuable insights into the subject, even as its goal is not to seek a final solution to the problem. Is it pretentious or vain for the realm of high culture to think that it can say anything of value to those experiencing the lowest strata of material subsistence, in all its hopelessness and despair? You may decide.
We welcome faculty, students, and staff of the Philosophy and Moral Science Departments as well as members of the wider University community. RSVP to Lucy Schwarz at luciaschwarz@email.arizona.edu.
When
12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Jan. 23, 2020
Academic year
2019-2020
Semester
Spring
Where
Kendrick Seminar Room, Social Sciences 128
Exposed: Why Our Health Insurance Is Incomplete and What Can Be Done about It
Thursday, March 26th
12:30-1:45pm
The Freedom Center Spring 2020 Colloquium Series presents Christopher Robertson, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation and Professor of Law at the University of Arizona.
Christopher Robertson is an Associate Dean for Research and Innovation and Professor of Law here at the U of A. He also founded the U of A's Regulatory Science Program. Many of you have probably already met him at one of our previous FC talks. Professor Robertson's main interests are in health law as well as law and science. His new book Exposed: Why Our Health Insurance Is Incomplete and What Can Be Done about It just came out with Harvard University Press. In his book (and his talk), Professor Robertson critiques patient cost exposure in the American healthcare system, i.e., the costs that patients incur through deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance. According to Professor Robertson, this system keeps people from valuable care, causes anxiety, and drives people into bankruptcy.
Abstract:
This talk is based on my 2019 book Exposed: Why Our Health Insurance is Incomplete and What Can Be Done About It. The passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 was an initial attempt by the US government to reshape health care insurance for Americans, but it still leaves patients exposed to huge costs through deductibles, copayments, and coinsurances. While the economic theory of cost-exposure is supposed to empower patients to make cost–benefit trade offs, encourage thrift and efficiency in a system rife with waste, and defend against the moral hazard that can arise from insurance, I find that it undermines access to care and targets the wrong decision makers. In this talk, I also draw on Chapter 4 of my book, which is the most overtly normative and philosophical, developing a theory of justice for access to healthcare in a world with substantial cost exposures.
Due to the current Covid-19 virus this FC Talk will be hosted as a Zoom meeting; please contact Lucy Schwarz if you would like to attend.
We welcome faculty, students, and staff of the Philosophy and Moral Science Departments as well as members of the wider University community. RSVP to Lucy Schwarz at luciaschwarz@email.arizona.edu.
When
12:30 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. March 26, 2020
Academic year
2019-2020
Semester
Spring
Gender Norms, Women’s Executive Function and Mental Health, and Anti-Poverty Programs: Experimental Evidence from India
Thursday, Febuary 27th
12:30-1:45pm
The Freedom Center Spring 2020 Colloquium Series presents Tauhid Rahman, Associate Professor at the University of Arizona's Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics.
Tauhid Rahman is an Associate Professor at the University of Arizona's Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics. Much of his research concerns the connections between gender and the economics of poverty. Professor Rahman was the Co-Principal Investigator of the National Science Foundation’s multidisciplinary Research Coordination Network (2012–2018) on sustainable food systems and food security. He is also a frequent visiting researcher at the World Bank and involved in several World Bank-supported research projects.
Abstract:
Sociocultural norms, executive function and mental health are powerful factors in an individual’s agency, decision-making, and development. Gender norms, for example, mediate the relationship between economic development and women's labor market outcomes. Executive functions make it possible for a person to live, work, and learn. They are important for taking simple to complex actions, from cooking, shopping, nurturing children, planning, and to execution. Low executive functions can frustrate the success of anti-poverty and empowerment programs through participants’ inadequate planning, improper utilization of resources, and the lack of timely actions. Similarly, mental and emotional health of a person powerfully affect their decision-making and choices. In developing countries, the fundamental obstacles to poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment are gender norms, low executive functions, and poor mental and emotional health. In this talk, I will describe a women’s anti-poverty program in India and present evidence on its causal effects on gender norms, women’ executive function, and mental and emotional health. I will also discuss the implications of these results for anti-poverty programs and women’s empowerment policies.
We welcome faculty, students, and staff of the Philosophy and Moral Science Departments as well as members of the wider University community. RSVP to Lucy Schwarz at luciaschwarz@email.arizona.edu.
When
12:30 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. Feb. 27, 2020
Academic year
2019-2020
Semester
Spring
Where
Kendrick Seminar Room, Social Sciences 128
The Welfare State as a Discovery Procedure: Basic Income and Social Evolution
Thursday, Febuary 6th
12:30-1:45pm
The Freedom Center Spring 2020 Colloquium Series presents Otto Lehto, PhD candidate in The Department of Political Economy at King's College London.
Otto Lehto is a PhD Candidate in Political Economy at King’s College (BA and MA from the University of Helsinki). He primarily studies Universal Basic Income, Classical Liberalism, and Evolutionary Economics. Besides his academic research, Otto also composes music and actively participates in Finnish politics.
ABSTRACT: Poverty relief entails the provision of goods and services. As such, it seems like a simple matter of redistribution. However, according to the liberal interpretation of evolutionary economics, as exemplified by e.g. F.A. Hayek and J.S. Mill, governments must overcome knowledge problems that limit their competence. In this view, efficient poverty relief should function as a discovery procedure that takes advantage of bottom-up experimentation and evolutionary learning. The goal of welfare policy, then, is to fumble in the dark in order to answer the question(s), "What do poor people want? And how should it be given to them?" To this end, Universal Basic Income (UBI) has several design features (e.g. its rule-based delivery and non-paternalism) that make it theoretically promising as a tool of welfare discovery. But it is also expensive, strange, and unpopular. Can it pass the test of comparative institutional analysis?
We welcome faculty, students, and staff of the Philosophy and Moral Science Departments as well as members of the wider University community. RSVP to Lucy Schwarz at luciaschwarz@email.arizona.edu.
When
12:30 p.m. to 1:50 p.m. Feb. 6, 2020
Academic year
2019-2020
Semester
Spring
Where
Kendrick Seminar Room, Social Sciences 128
Inequality in America: Assessing the Evidence
Thursday, January 16th
12:30-1:45pm
The Freedom Center Spring 2020 Colloquium Series presents Phil Magness, Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research.
Phil Magness is an economic historian and a Senior Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. Among other things, Professor Magness has done work on black colonization during the Civil War era, the economy of slavery, and the relationship between taxation and wealth inequality. In his FC talk, he is going to call into question what is almost a commonplace of current political discourse, namely, that wealth inequality in American is at an all time high and rising. According to Professor Magness, the evidence on wealth inequality is more ambiguous than most commentators realize.
ABSTRACT: Is inequality rising at unprecedented rates? Are the rich really paying fewer taxes than the rest? These claims are staples of our present political discourse, but the evidence behind them is more ambiguous than most commentators realize. In this talk I will examine how inequality is measured, what we can interpret from those measurements, and what they portend for economic prosperity and fairness.
We welcome faculty, students, and staff of the Philosophy and Moral Science Departments as well as members of the wider University community. RSVP to Lucy Schwarz at luciaschwarz@email.arizona.edu.
When
12:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. Jan. 16, 2020
Academic year
2019-2020
Semester
Spring
Where
Kendrick Seminar Room, Social Sciences 128
The Future of Public Goods
Cutting-edge thinker Michael Munger, Professor of Political Science at Duke University will discuss “The Future of Public Goods” at the Center for Creative Photography, August 28th at 5pm. Professor Munger discusses how Virtual Reality technologies can better society and the public good in a fairer more productive manner.
The talk is presented by the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, the American Culture & Ideas Initiative at the Fred Fox School of Music, and the School of Government & Public Policy.
Come early to hear classical musicians play prior to the talk!
The Voices of Culture Lecture Series is co-sponsored by The Center for the Philosophy of Freedom and The American Culture and Ideas Initiative.
