Lecture Notes: Inequality
14487 words https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/lecture-inequality-text.pdf
Philosophers, of course, if there are any in the audience here, will have winced by now. Perhaps they will have done more than winced—although I did not see any philosophers rise and run, screaming, from the room.
I have drawn strong conclusions about how high and important a priority reducing inequality should be for making a good society by being a bad philosopher. Philosophers would presumably say that I should first be a good philosopher. They would say that only after having reached good philosophical conclusions should I then use those conclusions as a springboard to derive “oughts” for political economy.
The problem, of course, is that there is no agreement on what the good philosophical conclusions are.
I maintain that my bad philosophy is a very useful middle ground. I draw conclusions for society from it. As you decide on what your view of good philosophy is, you move from my bad philosophy to yours, and that movement will carry with it a move of your political economy conclusions from the baseline I have established to those that you will think best. You will start with my conclusions, and adjust them in light of the difference between my bad and your good moral philosophy. My bad philosophy thus provides you with a convenient basecamp from which you—with your good philosophy—can begin your climb of the mountain of truth...
Slides: https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/lecture-inequality.pptx https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/lecture-inequality.pdf
Text: https://github.com/braddelong/public-files/blob/master/lecture-inequality-text.pdf
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14487 words
#economichistory #economics #equitablegrowth #highlighted #inequality #lecturenotes #moralphilosophy #politicaleconomy #2020-03-22