Tentative schedule of topics:

Jan. 4 – Introduction to the course; Plato and M. L. King: What is justice? Must we obey the law?

Jan. 18 – Aquinas, Hobbes and Natural Law

Feb. 1 – John Locke and Adam Smith: Social contract and limited government

Feb. 15 – Walzer, Rawls and Nozick: contemporary debate over the role of government and the nature of justice

Mar. 1 – Marx and the critique of capitalism, Burke and the critique of contract theory

Mar. 15 – Mills: The Racial Contract and the critique of white supremacy

Mar. 29 – Feminism and the critique of male domination