Great Issues in the Social Sciences

 HSP 155    CRN 4581
Tuesday & Thursday
1:10 – 3:00pm
Observatory
Dr. Jim McCarley

Course Description: 

Capitalism is assumed, at least in this country, to be a superior form of socioeconomic organization.  From the current recession to the Madoff Ponzi scheme, we can find much evidence that our assumption is flawed at the very least.  Understanding today’s economy requires that we begin with beliefs concerning human behavior expressed by the Scottish moral philosophers Shaftsbury and Hutchenson.  We will then continue our discussion with Adam Smith’s defining work on capitalism. And no discussion of capitalism would be complete without an examination of the criticisms expressed by Karl Marx.

 After mastering the intellectual concepts of capitalism and its problems, we will move to examine the complex of real-life problems with capitalism from the East India Company bubble and bust to the recession that we are currently experiencing.