Common threads · 6 books
A political philosophy seminar on rights, distribution, oppression, and capabilities. Try each theory on the same real disagreement.
Books, curator notes, and what to read next.
Michael J. Sandel
Sandel turns public controversies into competing accounts of fairness. Ask what each example leaves out.
Next: A Theory of Justice
John Rawls
Start with the original position and the two principles. Ask what the veil of ignorance excludes from fair bargaining.
Next: Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Robert Nozick
Nozick defends rights against redistributive patterns. Examine both the entitlement argument and the experience machine.
Next: Justice and the Politics of Difference
Iris Marion Young
Young shifts attention from distribution to oppression and institutions. Compare the five faces of oppression with familiar equality tests.
Next: The Idea of Justice
Amartya Sen
Sen starts with remediable injustice rather than a perfectly designed society. Try comparing two imperfect alternatives.
Next: Creating Capabilities
Martha Nussbaum
Nussbaum evaluates societies by what people can actually do and be. Compare this approach with income-based measures.
Also includes The Idea of Justice
Distance, poverty, rights, and real opportunities. Move from personal duties to the institutions that shape other people's lives.
Also includes Justice and the Politics of Difference
Study publics, action, deliberation, and conflict. These books ask what citizens need between elections for democratic life to have substance.
Also includes Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Pleasure, dignity, luck, and flourishing. Test the idea that a good life is simply a life with more happiness in it.
