Summer School of the Netherlands School for Research in Practical Philosophy

Ethics and Economics

22-26 August 2010, Barchem, the Netherlands

The future of the global economy is very much an open question. Especially since the financial crisis, debates about economic topics have resurged, in public life as well as in academia. Economic institutions and systems can be evaluated from a wide variety of points of view: economic, sociological, psychological etc. In this summer school, we will look at these institutions and systems from the perspective of contemporary practical philosophy, especially moral and political philosophy. We will focus on the contributions from these fiels to debates about key economic institutions (such as the market, labour relations, taxation and others) and more comprehensive economic systems (such as capitalism and socialism, the welfare state and basic income society). We will pay close attention both to the different normative frameworks and values that can be used for such evaluations (justice, equality, freedom, quality of life, etc.), as well as how to deal philosophically with the institutional details with which economic reality confronts us.

The aim of the course is not only to offer an overview of contemporary debates about ethics and economics but also a critical examination of different approaches. In addition, we want to provide an opportunity for PhD students to reflect on the methodology in their own research projects and a forum to discuss how to deal with the controversies about methodology in contemporary practical philosophy. The course will be of interest to PhD-students from different disciplines (philosophy, economics, political science, law, etc.) who are working on normative evaluations of economic mechanisms, institutions and systems.

Speakers

• Rutger Claassen (Assistant Professor of Political Philosophy, Leiden University)

• Gijs van Donselaar (Assistant Professor of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam)

• Axel Gosseries (Lecturer, University of Louvain-la-Neuve)

• Joseph Heath (Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto)

• Martin van Hees (Professor of Ethics, University of Groningen)

• Martin O’Neill, (Lecturer in Political Philosophy, University of York)

• Ingrid Robeyns (Professor of Practical Philosophy, Erasmus Univ. Rotterdam)

• Miriam Ronzoni (Research Fellow, Centre for Advanced Studies "Rethinking Justice - Applied and Global", Frankfurt)

• Klaus Steigleder (Professor of Philosophy, Ruhr-Universität Bochum)

• Bruno Verbeek (Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Leiden University)

• Stuart White (Lecturer, Jesus College, University of Oxford)