Class Home Page:  Go to  http://www.duke.edu/~munger/ and click on “courses”
 

What does it mean to be free? What is the good society?

Many scholars have argued that hierarchy, and some form of imposed coercive organization, is essential to liberty and human self-realization.  Others, however, have argued that the most important kinds of order, and action, in human societies are spontaneous, voluntary, and decentralized.   If cooperation is spontaneous, where does it come from, and how can we foster a setting where people voluntarily act to advance the collective good?

            In this course we will read selectively some of the great works on both sides of this question.  No definitive answers will be reached, but we will concentrate on three sets of questions in considering each reading.

Ethical foundation:  What does this writer believe is the essence of the ideal place of the citizen in the society?

Dialogue with other work:  In this scheme, are the most important restraints on liberty external and hierarchical, or internal results of spontaneous,  voluntary actions?  How does the writer answer potential counterarguments from other points of view?

Evaluation:  Is the blueprint that this writer creates for the ideal society workable?  What techniques of quantitative analysis, including study of data available from published sources, would allow us to evaluate this conception of society?
 
 

PAPERS:

Bi-weekly two page evaluations of arguments we have read, and talked about, in class.  At first, this “two page” business may seem easy, but it is bad news, trust me.  It is very difficult to make a useful, complete argument in just two pages.  Specific topic “questions” will be suggested, but the particular point you choose to write on will be up to you.
 

GRADES:

Grades for this class will be derived from the students performance on a midterm exam, a final exam, and four two-page papers, as well as class participation.   These will have the following weights:

ITEM:                                                                                      WEIGHT:

1. Final Exam:                                                                           40%

Textbooks

        Readings and Schedule:

(August 28, 30):

(September 4, 6 and 8):

1) Roger Pilon, “The Purpose and Limits of Government,” in  Limiting Leviathan, Racheter and Wagner, editors, pp. 13-37.  (electronic reserve, Perkins Library)  (go to:     http://www.lib.duke.edu/access/reserves/      and search for "munger")

2)  Magna Carta                  http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/magnacarta.htm
 

(September 11, 13 and 15):

(September 18 and 20 ):

1.  Aristotle’s Politics             http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/politics.html

(September 25, 27 and 29):

1.  Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, Parts I and II (Chapter 1 to Chapter 31, inclusive)
        http://coombs.anu.edu.au/Depts/RSSS/Philosophy/Texts/LeviathanTOC.html

2.  Miller, Managerial Dilemmas, pp. 36-57.
 
 

(October 2, 4 and 6):

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s On Social Contract, Books I-IV

(October 9, 11, and 13):

Munger, Analyzing Policy, Chapters 2 and 6.

(October 18, 20, 23, and 25):Spontaneous Cooperation?
Reading:

1.  Miller, Managerial Dilemmas, p.179-238.2.  R. A. Radford, “The Economic Organization of a POW Camp,” Economica, November 1945,
189-201.  (Excerpted in Munger, Analyzing Policy, Case #1, pp. 89-100.
3.  D. Klein, “Conventions, Social Order, and the Two Coordinations.”
                       http://lsb.scu.edu/~dklein/papers/order.html
4.  G. Mackie, “Ending Footbinding and Infibulation:  A Convention Account.” American

(October 27 and 30):
Classical Christian Doctrine of Government and Markets
Reading:

Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.)--Background
                          http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02084a.htm
    Excerpt from The City of God
                          http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/120114.htm

Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 A.D.)--Background
                          http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14663b.htm
    Excerpts from Summa Theologica
                          http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/aquinas77.htm
                          http://eawc.evansville.edu/anthology/aquinas78.htm
 

(November 1, 3, and 6):

(November 8 and 10):

Buchholz, New Ideas from Dead Economists, Chapter 4

David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy & Taxation,

Chapter 7:  “On Foreign Trade” http://www.econlib.org/library/Ricardo/ricPContents.html
 
 

  (November 13, 15, and 17):
John Stuart Mill and Freedom of Speech
Reading:

Buchholz, New Ideas from Dead Economists, Chapter 5

John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Chapters I and II

                                             http://wiretap.spies.com/ftp.items/Library/Classic/liberty.jsm

Speech Codes on the College Campus:  Some Resources

                                               http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/patterns/speechcodes.htm#links

                                               http://www.duke.edu/~pks/Honor_Council/Honor_Code.html
                                               http://www.shadowuniv.com/waterbuffalo/wball.html
                                               http://www.fac.org/PUBLICAT/warwords/warofwrd.htm
                                               http://www.fac.org/PUBLICAT/warwords/table95.htm
                                               http://www.ultranet.com/~kyp/schools/bennet2.html
                                               http://www.uark.edu/depts/comminfo/www/campus.speech.html
                                               http://www.hu.mtu.edu/~tlockha/pcdebate.htm
                                               http://www.aclu.org/library/aahate.html
                                               http://www.CompleatHeretic.com/pubs/essays/pccodes.html
 

  (November 20 and 22):

Karl Marx, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1844, with Engels)

                                             http://noesis.evansville.edu/Author_Index/M/Marx,_Karl/

V.I. Lenin, “What Is To Be Done?” (1902)

                                             http://gate.cruzio.com/~marx2mao/Lenin/WD02i.html

• Chapter 2, part A
• Chapter 3, parts C, D, and E

(November 27, 29, and December 1):

Buchholz, New Ideas from Dead Economists, Chapter 6
Karl Marx, Capital, V. 1, Chapters 1 and 26

(December 4 and 6):

  Reading Period:  December 8-10
  Final Exam Period:  December 11-16