SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY & POLICY CENTER

Ownership and Justice

On September 18-20, 2008, a conference on Ownership and Justice will be held at Bowling Green State University. Conferees will discuss various principles of justice with respect to questions of the ownership of assets and income. Participants in this conference will include Richard Arneson, Professor of Philosophy, University of California San Diego; Thomas Christiano, Professor of Philosophy and Law, University of Arizona; Edward Feser, Instructor of Philosophy, Pasadena City College; Gerald F. Gaus, James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy, University of Arizona; John Kekes, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, State University of New York at Albany; Eric Mack, Professor of Philosophy, Tulane University; Liam Murphy, Herbert Peterfreund Professor of Law, and Professor of Philosophy, New York University School of Law; Owen McLeod, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Lafayette College; Jan Narveson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Waterloo; James R. Otteson, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Alabama; Daniel C. Russell, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Wichita State University; David Schmidtz, Kendrick Professor of Philosophy and Joint Professor of Economics, University of Arizona; and George Sher, Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Philosophy, Rice University.

Moral Obligation

On November 13-15, 2008, several prominent scholars will meet at Bowling Green State University to discuss moral obligation–its sources, character and implications for both prescribed and proscribed human action. Participating in this discussion will be Bernard Boxill, Pardue Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Andrew Jason Cohen, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Georgia State University; Stephen Darwall, John Dewey Collegiate Professor of Philosophy, University of Michigan; H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., Professor of Philosophy, Rice University; R. G. Frey, Professor of Philosophy, Bowling Green State University; Patricia Greenspan, Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland; Paul F. Guyer, F.R.C. Murray Professor in the Humanities, University of Pennsylvania; Thomas Hurka, Jackman Distinguished Chair in Philosophical Studies, University of Toronto; Charles Larmore, Professor of Philosophy and W. Duncan MacMillan Professor in the Humanities, Brown University; John Skorupski, Professor of Moral Philosophy, The University of St. Andrews; Holly M. Smith, Professor II of Philosophy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey; and Mark Timmons, Professor of Philosophy, University of Arizona.

What Should Constitutions Do?

On April 16-19, 2009 Liberty Fund and the Social Philosophy and Policy Center will sponsor a conference in Tampa, Florida, that will discuss the topic, What Should Constitutions Do? Conferees will discuss the following sorts of questions: What are the normative purposes (if any) that justify constitutions? Is the essential function of a constitution the protection of individual rights? If so, what are these rights and how can they be justified? How can a constitution protect the rights of minorities while upholding democratic processes? Under what circumstances and to what extent should majority will be constrained in the name of protecting individual rights? Alternatively, is the purpose of a constitution to secure the will of the majority, or perhaps a vaguely described "general welfare," with neither individual nor minority "rights" serving as side-constraints? If the former, how is the people's will to be determined: by simple majority voting or by some mechanism that determines a "general" or "true" will of the people? If the latter, how is the "general welfare" to be identified? Answering these questions will be Lawrence A. Alexander, Warren Distinguished Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law; Jules L. Coleman, Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence and Professor of Philosophy, Yale Law School; Richard A. Epstein, James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Director, Law and Economics Program, University of Chicago Law School; James F. Fishkin, Janet M. Peck Chair in International Communication, Professor of Communication, Professor of Political Science, Director, Institute for Communication Research, Stanford University; William A. Galston, Senior Fellow, Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution, and College Park Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland; Douglas W. Kmiec, Professor of Constitutional Law and Caruso Family Chair in Constitutional Law, Pepperdine University; Sanford V. Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair and Professor of Government, The University of Texas at Austin; Loren E. Lomasky, Cory Professor of Political Philosophy, Policy and Law, and Director, Political Philosophy, Policy and Law Program, University of Virginia; Guido Pincione, Professor of Law and Philosophy, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Ilya Somin, Assistant Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law; Fernando Tesón, Tobias Simon Eminent Scholar, Florida State University College of Law; and Michael P. Zuckert, Nancy Reeves Dreux Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame.