Philosophy

Administrators can be found in for-profit businesses, NGOs, schools and universities, hospitals, the armed forces, government, etc. The course strives to address two key questions: "What responsibilities do decision makers in organizations have to others?" and "Why do they have such responsibilities?" Analytical tools presented in the course to help answer these questions will include such approaches as Rawls’ distributive justice, Harsanyi's utilitarianism, and Gauthier’s morals by agreement, among many others. Students will be expected to understand the justification for each of these tools, apply them to cases discussed in class, and ultimately be able to recommend and defend what actions administrators ought to take according to each method of analysis. In conjunction with the above analytical tools, the course will also introduce a variety of “thinking methods,” such as formal logic, thought experiments, and game theory, which underlie the tools. Prerequisite: 3ch in Philosophy, or permission of the instructor.