Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Reading Groups
Learn more about our reading groups
If you'd like to join us . . .
We meet Tuesday nights from 5:30-7:00 p.m. Please contact Michael D. Thomas at michaelthomas@creighton.edu if you would like to get a copy of the readings and observe the group.
Current Readings
"Concentrated Benefits and Dispersed Costs in the Age of Cancel Culture and Identity Politics"
Discourse is an important part of the liberal arts education. How do you know what thoughts are yours and what thoughts that you are just repeating. Groups form around common ideas and common perceptions of the world. How these norms emerge, persist, and change are key questions of public policy. Discourse is essential to understanding this process. Are you a free thinker? Can you be a free thinker in a world where what is considered civil discourse cannot offend anyone? Do individuals have the right to offend people? What do we do when we would rather withdraw from public discourse than put up with the discomfort of engaging people with wildly different perspectives?
This semester's PPE reading group will examine the formation of groups, with special attention to academic communities and political action.
"Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Reading Group", directed by Dr. Michael D. Thomas, Director of Student Programs and Associate Professor of Economics.
- Meeting 6 times throughout the semester
- Meet Tuesdays from 5-7 in the Harper Center, dinner provided
- Reading three books (the IEI will provide the books)
- Uncivil agreement by Liliana Mason
- The Logic of Collective Action by Mancur Olson
- Cancel culture by Alan Dershowitz
- Applications are open! They close on August 26th
- Mancur Olson, The Logic of Collective Action
- Lilliana Mason, Uncivil Agreement: How Politics became our Identity
- Alan Dershowitz, Cancel Culture: The Latest Attack on Free Speech and Due Process
Famous Graduates in PPE:
- Christopher Hitchens
- Robert Reich
- James E. Meade
- Tim Besley
- David Cameron
- William Hauge
There is a PPE program at the following US schools:
Academic Journal:
Format of each session:
1) Introduction: The moderator begins with a short discussion of the readings highlighting several possible topics of discussion that might get the conversation started; the cue is then open for anyone who has a response or a new topic of conversation
2) Cue: The moderator keeps a cue that has three distinct categories:
On Point: By pointing down at the table the participant lets the moderator know that he or she would like to contribute to the current discussion
New Point: By raising one's hand this signals to the moderator that the participant would like to add something completely new to the discussion, often to explore a new area of dialogue
SIP (Short-important-point): This is no more than two sentences or a tweet. This can be used to keep the conversation on track if someone introduces material that mistaken or has the potential to mislead the conversation.
This format has been designed to discourage a back and forth debate as different students rotate through conversation. It can be challenging to keep track of different threads of the conversation but is an extremely egalitarian way to have an intellectual discussion.
Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal201490
Past Readings of the PPE Reading Group
The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup
Systems thinking for Social Change by David Peter Stroh
Selections from Jean-Jacques Rousseau (A Reader)
The Property Species by Bart Wilson
Range by David Epstein
Emile: Or On Education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein
Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Elisabeth Gaskell - North and South
Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Friedrich v. Hayek - The Constitution of Liberty
Edmund Burke - A Vindication of Natural Society
Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Social Contract
John Rawls - Political Liberalism
Adam Smith: Do You Need to be Social to have a Society?
The Theory of Moral Sentiments | Various Excerpts
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations | Various Excerpts
James C. Scott (2017) - Against the Grain
Amartya Sen (1999) - Development as Freedom
Hernando De Soto (2000) - Mystery as Capital
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson (2019) - The Narrow Corridor: States Society, and the Fate of Liberty
Arthur C. Brooks (2019) - Love Your Enemies
Angus Deaton (2008) - "Income, Health, and Well-Being Around the World: Evidence from a Gallop World Poll."
Axel Dreher et al (2011) - "Globalization, Economic Freedom, and Human Rights."
Daniel D'Amico and Claudia Williamson (2015) - "Do Legal Origins Affect Cross-Country Incarceration Rates?"
David Skarbek (2016) - "Covenants Without the Sword? Comparing Prison Self-Governance Globally."
Literature and Economics
Tyler Cowen and Joseph Pieper - Is a Novel a Model?
Biblical Parables and Greek Myths (Gospel of Luke and Edith Hamilton)
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels
Marcelo Fernandes, An Examination of Gulliver's Travels
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
Bram Stoker, Dracula
F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Diamond as Big as the Ritz, The Rich Boy, & Babylon Revisit
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
Charles Dickens, Christmas Carol
Vernon Smith and Bart Wilson (2019) Humanomics: Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations for the Twenty-First Century Cambridge University Press
Ryan Patrick Hanley (2011) "David Hume and the "Politics of Humanity""
Elinor Ostrom (2000) "Collective Action and the Evolution of Social Norms"
Ernst Fehr and Urs Fishbacher (2004) "Social Norms and Human Cooperation"
Adam Smith (1795) History of Astronomy
Pope Francis (2016) "Laudato Si" (selections)
James Konow (2009) "Is Fairness in the Eyes of the Beholder?: An Impartial Spectator Analysis of Justice"
Robert Axelrod (1986) "An Evolutionary Approach to Norms"
Joel Mokyr (2000) Culture of Growth: Chapter 9: Cultural Choice in Action: Human Capital and Religion
Edward Glaeser, David Laibson, Jose Scheinkman, and Christine Soutter (2000) "Measuring Trust"
Vernon Smith (2003) "Constructivist and Ecological Rationality in Economics"
Symposium on April 12 and 13
Theme: Epistemic Humility
Roger Koppl - Expert Failure - Cambridge University Press
Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall - Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism - Stanford University Press
Cass Sunstein (ed) - Can it Happen Here? Authoritarianism in America - Dey Street Books
Cristina Bicchieri - Norms in the Wild: How to Diagnose, Measure, and Change Social Norms - Oxford University Press
Anthony Gill - Political Origins of Religious Liberty - Cambridge University Press
Peter Berger and Anton Zijderveld - In Praise of Doubt - Harper One
Russell Hardin - How do you Know? The Economics of Ordinary Knowledge - Princeton University Press
Phillip Tetlock - Expert Political Judgment - Princeton University Press
Politics, Philosophy, and Economics Group
Session I -- January 31st -- Ryan Avent, The Wealth of Humans, Introduction and chapters 1-3 (BOOK PROVIDED) -- John Maynard Keynes, "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren" (READER)
Session II -- February 7th -- Miroslav Volf, Work in the Spirit, Toward a Theology of Work, Introduction and Part I (READER)
Session III -- February 14th -- John Paul, II Laborem Exercens (READER)
Session IV -- February 21st -- Anthony Heyes (2005) "The Economics of Vocation or ?Why is a badly paid nurse a good nurse?" (READER) -- Julie Nelson and Nancy Folbre (2006) "Why a well-paid Nurse is a Better Nurse" (READER) John Kelly(1982) "Useless work and Useless toil" Marxism Today (READER) and Joseph Pieper Leisure: The Basis of Culture pp. 19-51 (BOOK PROVIDED)
Session V -- March 14th -- Tyler Cowen, Average is Over, part I (BOOK PROVIDED)
Session VI -- March 21st -- Coyne, Munger, and Whaples (Eds), Future: Peril or Prosperity?, Chapters 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, and 17. (BOOK PROVIDED)
Ethics Group
Session I -- January 30 -- Deep Background: The Changing Conditions of Labor -- Ryan Avent, The Wealth of Humans, Introduction and chapters 1-3 -- John Maynard Keynes, "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren"
Session II -- February 6 - More Recent Background: Work in an Age of Precocity -- Jen Silva, "Hardened Selves: The Remaking of the American Working Class," from Coming Up Short (30 pp) -- Michael Lind, "Can you Have a Good Life if you Don't Have a Good Job?" NYTimes (~4 pp) -- Guy Standing, "Meet the precariat" The Precariat (6 pp) -- Miroslav Volf, Introduction and "The Problem of Work," from Work in the Spirit, Toward a Theology of Work (~32 pp, after dropping out the ~10 section on social planning)
Session III -- February 13 - The Ethics of Work in America Today -- Max Weber, Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (~5 pp) -- Miroslav Volf, "Dominant Understandings of Work," from Work in the Spirit, Toward a Theology of Work (15 pp) -- Jon Malesic - "How we talk about Work, Ethics, and Spirituality," from After Work: The Spiritual Costs of the American Work Ethic (23 pp - 8k words)
Session IV -- February 20 - Work and Vocation: Protestant and Catholic Views -- John Paul, II Laborem Exercens -- Gary Chamberlain, "Protestant and Catholic Meanings of Vocation: Is Business a True Vocation?" (20pp)
Session V -- March 13 - Vocation and the Economy -- Anthony Heyes "The Economics of Vocation or - Why is a badly paid nurse a good nurse?" (9 pp) -- Julie Nelson and Nancy Folbre - "Why a well-paid Nurse is a Better Nurse" (4 pp) -- Dave Eggers and Ninive Clements Calgary, "The High Cost of Low Teacher Salaries," NYTimes (4 pp) -- Warren Meyer, "The Teacher Salary Myth? Are Teachers Underpaid?" Forbes (11 pp - but short)
Session VI -- March 20 - Against Work? -- John Kelly - "Useless work and Useless toil" -- Joseph Pieper - Leisure: The Basis of Culture (32pp) -- Jon Malesic - "Askesis and detachment from work in the Rule of St Benedict," from After Work: The Spiritual Costs of the American Work Ethic, (19 pp, 7k words)
September 13: The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less, by Barry Schwartz, pp. 9-77
September 20: Manipulation: Theory and Practice, Coons and Weber (eds),pp. 17-72
September 27: Pride and Prejudice, ALL
October 4: The Theory of Moral Sentiments , by Adam Smith. Part III. (44 total pages)
October 25: On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill with particular attention to Chapters I, II, and IV. n
November 1: Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism, By Sarah Conly, pp. 16-73
November 8: Why Nudge? The Politics of Libertarian Paternalism, by Cass Sunstein, pp. 1-86
November 15: The Manipulation of Choice, Ethics and Libertarian Paternalism, by Mark D. White, pp. 1-80
November 29: Anti-Fragile: Things that Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Taleb, pp. 31-80
Jan. 26 - Pontifical Council For Justice and Peace "Vocation of a Business Leader"
Feb. 2 - Samuel Gregg -"Economic Thinking for the Theologically Minded" pp. 3-56 (53 pages)
Feb. 9 - Pope John Paul II "Centesimus Annus : On the Hundredth Anniversary of Rerum Novarum"
Feb. 16 - A. C. Waterman "Market Social Order and Christian Organicism" in Centesimus Annus pp. 220-233 // Michael Naughton "The Corporation as a Community of Work: Understanding the Firm Within The Catholic Social Tradition" Pp. 33-76 (56 total pages)
Feb. 23 - James P. Bailey "Rethinking Poverty: Income, Assets, and the Catholic Social Justice Tradition" pp. 5-59; 127-131, (58 pages)
March 15 - Pope Francis "Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium)" pp. 125-173 (48 pages)
March 22 - Karl Brunner "Economic Inequality and the Quest for Social Justice" p. 153-158 / /Angus Deaton "Understanding the Mechanisms of Economic Development" -- pp. 53-72 (24 total pages)
March 29 - Harry G. Frankfurt -- On Inequality (89 pages)
April 8-10 - Markets and Catholic Social Thought Symposium at Georgetown University with keynote speakers: Samuel Gregg (the Acton Institute) and James Bailey (Duquesne University), ca. 50 students from Creighton University, Georgetown University, Loyola University Chicago, Loyola University New Orleans, Catholic University, and Saint Louis University.
Jan. 19 - Why Not Capitalism?, Jason Brennan
Jan. 26 - Cost and Choice, James M. Buchanan
Feb. 2 - Doing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails, Christopher J. Coyne
Feb. 9 - Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
Feb. 16 - Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty
Feb. 23 - Why Some Things Should Not Be for Sale: The Moral Limits of Markets, Debra Satz
Mar. 16/23 - Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy, Viviana A. Zelizer
Sept. 9 - Voltaire's letter VI on England, Dani Rodrik's blog post and responses.
Sept. 16 - Madmen, Intellectuals, and Academic Scribblers, Leighton and López
Sept. 23 and 30 - Victory of Reason, Rodney Stark
Oct. 7 - Methodology of Positive Economics, Milton Friedman vs. Evolution, Uncertainty, and Economic Theory, Armen Alchain.
Oct. 28 - Use of Knowledge in Society, F.A. Hayek and I,Pencil, Leonard Reed
Nov. 4 - In Defense of Free Markets, Robert Sirico
Nov. 11 - What Money Can't Buy, Michael Sandel
Nov. 18 - Business as Usual, Paul Mattick
Dec. 2 - The Shareholder Value Myth, Lynn Stout
