80-835 Seminar in Social & Political Philosophy
12 units, Carnegie Mellon University
Political philosophy in the late 20th and early 21st century has largely been dominated by Rawlsian political liberalism. However in recent years, growing attention has been paid to twin challenges to this paradigm. First, the work of Iris Marion Young demonstrated Rawlsian liberalisms inability to adequately account for structural injustice injustice due not primarily to the structure of formal state institutions, but rather to a widely distributed causal network comprised not only of policies, but also individual and institutional actions, constraints generated by the structure of various markets, diverse tastes and interests of individuals, the persistence of social norms, and other informal features of our daily lives. And second, the growing awareness that Rawlss focus on ideal theory leaves political philosophy illequipped to theorize about some of the most pressing political issues that arise in a globalized world characterized by this kind of structural injustice. This course aims to provide students with graduatelevel familiarity with contemporary political philosophy as it engages these topics. Well begin with an introduction to Rawlsian political liberalism and the challenges to it from Youngs framework of structural injustice and the nonideal turn in political theory. From there, we will spend the bulk of the semester engaging contemporary work the last 10 years on the nature of structural injustice and responsibility to address it. What constitutes a social structure in the relevant sense Why and how does structural injustice put pressure on Rawlsian liberalism What constitutes contributing to injustice, and when does benefiting from injustice become complicity What are the limitations of Youngs framework, and how might it be modified or improved How should we conceptualize responsibility for structural injustice under global capitalism, and how should that responsibility be distributed
Prerequisites: none listed
Offered: Spring 2027
Courseweave needs JavaScript to show sections, workloads and planning tools.