SRES 470 Free Enterprise, Liberty, and the Common Good
Spring Semester only. This class will serve as the capstone course for Markets
and Political Economy, but is open to all students. Conceptual and practical issues arising from earlier courses will be re-examined through questions relating to the common good, individualism, sovereignty, and justice towards God and neighbor. Case studies involving contemporary and perennial debates will be used throughout. Classical conceptions of justice and the common good will provide a foundation, from Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero, including the synthesis in St. Thomas Aquinas. These will be contrasted with social contract and libertarian conceptions influential in modern thought. Key questions to be pursued is this: which mode of
political economy, and which underlying conception of the human person, is the true heir to Leo XIII's Rerum Novarum: some kind of social democracy, 'state capacity capitalism,' Novak's `democratic capitalism,' or something else? What kind of political economy would be a distinctively American contribution? What is the
best ethical defenses of a free economy?
Cross Listed Courses
SRES 470 & SRES 570
Prerequisite
Junior or higher class standing