Privilege and Poverty: An Interdisciplinary Study of Economic InequalitY

In this course, we will employ the tools of economics, history, sociology, philosophy, and theology to study domestic and global economic inequality. The first question we will consider is descriptive: what are the causes of economic inequality? The second question we will entertain is normative: how should an ethical society respond to the reality of economic inequality? Readings will be drawn from current literature as well as classic texts, including thinkers like Adam Smith, J.S. Mill, Walter Rauschenbusch, Jane Addams, Reinhold Niebuhr, Cornel West, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, and Amartya Sen. 3 hrs. sem.