A survey of public policies directed toward social problems in America and their evolution and reform. Development of role of government in addressing issues related to poverty and social welfare.

This course will examine common ethical dilemmas and challenges in medicine, methods for thinking ethically, and how the law responds to these situations.

Examination of relationships between science, technology, and government, and their mutual influence on public and private decisions.

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This course explores the ethical and philosophical dimensions of artificial intelligence, and it examines policies that can, or should, govern its development and use.

Public policies are often proposed and implemented for the purpose of improving the human condition. Proponents of policy interventions might hope to promote human welfare; to increase liberty or freedom; to advance justice or equality, or to protect democracy. But these high-level values – welfare, liberty, justice, equality, democracy, and others – are contested and admit of different interpretations. We might all agree that “improving the human condition” is a good thing – and that the values of welfare, liberty, justice, equality, and democracy should be promoted. But there are rational disagreements about what these values really mean. Philosophers, political theorists, and others have been examining and debating these values, and their different interpretations, for centuries. The premise of this course is these debates matter – not just for academic philosophy, but for public policy. We will examine some of the main interpretations of these values, and the various arguments that have been provided for and against them. And we will consider how these different interpretations relate to public policy. The aim of this course is not to promote any particular conception of any of these values – e.g., to identify the “one true theory of justice” – but rather to help students understand their different interpretations and how they relate to public policy, especially public policies that of special interest to them.

An exploration of the organizations, strategies, and issues that have defined African American political life in the post-civil rights era in the United States. (Cross-list with PUBP 3214)

Examination of the nature and processes of scientific inquiry, including the status of scientific knowledge, identification of pseudoscientific claims, and the role of values in generating and using scientific knowledge. Credit not allowed for both PHIL 3115 and PST 3115.

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