Philosophy 407A: International Justice
Michael Blake
Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Governance
University of Washington
E-mail: miblake@uw.edu
Political philosophers have tended to focus on the relationship between the state and its citizens. They have only recently started to focus on what justice demands outside this context: between states, for instance, or between a state and foreign citizens. This class is an introduction to some recent work on this area. It is intended to focus on philosophical arguments in three primary areas:
(1) What is the relationship between justice and international economic inequality?
(2) What would appropriate forms of tolerance look like between sovereign states?
(3) How are these conversations - especially those about human rights, migration, and international poverty - affected by the changes in the past decade, including the rise of populism and the fact of the Covid-19 pandemic?
The course is intended for advanced undergraduates, and beginning graduate students, in Philosophy. The expectation is that students come to the class having already done some work in moral or political philosophy. Students without this background should come and speak to the instructor prior to enrolling.
Requirements
All requirements must be completed prior to course credit being given.
Extensions will be given only in the case of medical or other documented hardship.
Late papers and assignments will be penalized .3 per day.
Readings
Readings will be available on e-reserves. Students may wish to purchase John Rawls’s The Law of Peoples, given the amount of this text we will be reading, but need not do so.
Assignments
(1) Class participation, which will count for 20% of the grade. For our purposes, class participation is valued in terms of the willingness to contribute, rather than with reference to philosophical cleverness. In other words: full marks for those who show up and speak; you are expected to speak regularly, but should not hold yourself to any particular standard of brilliance in doing so.
(2) Some written work, which will count for 80% of the grade:
a. Eight response papers, each at most of one page; the response papers will be due by midnight on the Sunday night before the reading in question is listed on the syllabus. These smaller papers will have four parts:
i. What the reading in question wants to establish - including what key terms are found in the reading, and what they mean; and
ii. What is unclear or confusing about the reading, or what philosophical questions you might want to raise about the reading
Or -
b. Two medium-length papers, each between six and eight pages, double-spaced; one will be on topics dealt with on or prior to February 3, and is due at midnight (actually, 11:59 PM) on February 5, with the other on topics after February 3 and due at midnight (again, actually 11:59 PM), March 10; or
c. One longer paper, between twelve and twenty pages in length, due on Friday, March 10, also at midnight (see above: 11:59).
Dates and readings
Each week focuses on one topic. We will deal with the papers in the order presented; you are not required to have read all the papers for the week prior to Monday, but it often helps.
January 4: Introduction, and Consequentialism
Peter Singer, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”
Recommended, but not required:
Larissa MacFarquhar - Strangers Drowning
January 9 and 11: Rawls and Distributive Justice
David Schmidtz, “Islands in a Sea of Obligation”
John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (original edition), 3-33, 60-100
Charles Beitz, “Justice and International Relations”
January 18: Public Reason and Causation
John Rawls, The Law of Peoples, Part 1, plus sections 15 and 16
Thomas Pogge, “’Assisting’ the Global Poor”
January 23 and 25: Global Toleration
John Rawls, The Law of Peoples, Part II
Kishore Mahbubani, Can Asians Think (excerpts)
January 30 and February 1: Global Human Rights
Martha Nussbaum “Women and the Law of Peoples”
Nojang Khatami, "The Lifeblood of Iranian Democracy." Available at https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/the-lifeblood-of-iranian-democracy/
February 6 and 8: Global Human Rights and Cultural Autonomy
Michael Ignatieff, “Human Rights as Idolatry”
Daniel Bell, East Meets West (excerpts)
February 13 and 15: The Challenge of Populism
Umberto Eco, “Ur-Fascism,” Available at https://sites.evergreen.edu/politicalshakespeares/wp-content/uploads/sites/226/2015/12/Eco-urfascism.pdf
Jan-Werner Müller, “Real Citizens,” Available at https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/jan-werner-muller-populism/
February 22: Torture, Dignity, Warfare
Alan M. Dershowitz, “The Case for Torture Warrants,” Available at https://www.reuters.com/article/idUS1631336720110907
Branko Marcetic, "Holding Putin Accountable Would Require an Actual Rules-Based World Order," Available at https://jacobin.com/2022/04/vladimir-putin-rules-based-world-order-international-criminal-court-us-ukraine-russia-war-crimes
Simon Waxman, "What Rule-Based International Order?" Available at https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/what-rule-based-international-order/
February 27 and March 1: Migration and Populism
Joseph Carens, “Who Gets the Right to Stay?” Available at http://bostonreview.net/global-justice/joseph-h-carens-who-gets-right-stay
Michael Blake, Justice, Migration, and Mercy, 136-142
World Economic Forum, "Populism is Spreading. This is What's Driving It." Available at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/populism-is-spreading-this-is-whats-driving-it
Interview with Justin Gest, Available at https://www.vox.com/conversations/2016/12/21/14023688/donald-trump-white-working-class-republican-democrats-justin-gest
Recommended but not required:
Michael Blake, "On Migration and Backlash."
March 6 and 8: What's next?
Topics to be chosen by the class, as well as finishing up what we haven't yet completed above