Collective Action: Ethics and Policy

Spring 2014, Stanford University


Syllabus


Readings (Numbered Readings are Required)

PART ONE: PUBLIC POLICY AND COLLECTIVE ACTION

April 1: Introduction to Collective Action Problems

1. Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons", Science

2. William Poundstone, "Bertrand Russell and John von Neumann's Argument for Preventative Nuclear War", in Prisoner's Dilemma, Anchor

Optional: Milton Friedman, selection from "The Role of Government in a Free Society", in Capitalism and Freedom, Chicago UP (full article)

1. Elinor Ostrom et. al., "Revisiting the Commons: Local Lessons, Global Challenges", Science

2. Elinor Ostrom, selections from Governing the Commons, Cambridge UP

3. Elinor Ostrom, "A General Framework for Analyzing Sustainability of Social-Ecological Systems", Science

Optional: Elizabeth Willott, "Recent Population Trends", in Schmidtz and Willott eds. Environmental Ethics, Oxford UP

Optional: Michael Heller, Gridlock Economy: How too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives, Basic Books

1. Scott Barrett, Introduction and Chapters 1,2, and 3 of Why Cooperate? The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods, Oxford UP

Optional: Scott Barrett, Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 7 of Why Cooperate? The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods, Oxford UP

1. NOAA Accomplishments 2009-2012, pp. 7-9 only (on domestic fisheries), NOAA

2. Eric Schwaab and Jane Lubchenco, "Global Fisheries Sustainability: A Need for Concerted Actions to Meet Society's Goals"

3. Ray and Ulrike Hilborn, pp. 1-68, 91-96, and 122-130 of Overfishing: What Everyone Needs to Know, Oxford UP

Optional: Tom Tietenberg and Lynne Lewis, "Fisheries and Common Pool Resources Economics", in Environmental & Natural Resource Economics, 9th Edition

Optional: NOAA Executive Summary of Catch Shares Policy, NOAA

Optional: Nicolas Gutierrez et. al., "Leadership, Social Capital, and Incentives Promote Successful Fisheries", Nature

Optional: Elliott Norse et. al., "Sustainability of deep-sea fisheries", Marine Policy

Optional: Martin Smith et. al., "Political economy of marine reserves: Understanding the role of opportunity costs", PNAS

Optional: John Lynham, "How have catch shares been allocated?", Marine Policy

Optional: Christopher Costello et. al., "Can catch shares prevent fisheries collapse?", Science (replies to objections here)

1. Lynn Scarlett, "Choices, Consequences, and Cooperative Conservation", in Schmidtz and Willott eds. Environmental Ethics, Oxford UP

2. Carol Rose, "Liberty, Property, Environmentalism", Social Philosophy and Policy

Optional: Robert Stavins, "Experience With Market-Based Environmental Policy Instruments"

Optional: Dan Shahar, "Free-Market Environmentalism Pace Environmentalism", in Schmidtz and Willott eds. Environmental Ethics, Oxford UP

Optional: Carol Rose, "Common Property, Regulatory Property, and Environmental Protection: Comparing Community-Based Management to Tradeable Environmental Allowances", in Ostrom et. al. eds. The Drama of the Commons, National Academies Press

Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper (recommended for its general relevance)

1. Thomas Schelling, "Bargaining, Communication, and Limited War", Conflict Resolution

2. Thomas Schelling, "Nuclear Deterrence for the Future", Issues in Science and Technology (full Nobel Lecture here)

3. John F. Kennedy, 10 June 1963 address at American University (wiki article on the speech here)

4. Browse http://nuclearrisk.org/

Optional: Reread William Poundstone, "Bertrand Russell and John von Neumann's Argument for Preventative Nuclear War", in Prisoner's Dilemma, Anchor

Optional: Thomas Schelling, "An Essay on Bargaining", American Economic Review

Optional: Thomas Schelling autobiography, Nobel Prize website

Optional: Thomas Schelling, selections from Micromotives and Macrobehavior, Norton

Optional: "Risk of Nuclear Accidents is Rising", The Guardian

PART TWO: ETHICS AND COLLECTIVE ACTION

May 1: One Approach to the Ethics of Collective Action: Consequentialist Theories

1. Derek Parfit, "Practical Dilemmas", pp. 53-66 of Reasons and Persons, Oxford UP

2. Shelly Kagan, "Do I Make a Difference?", pp. 105-124, Philosophy and Public Affairs

3. Gerald Gaus, "Is Voting Rational?", pp. 184-191 of On Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Wadsworth

4. Derek Parfit, "Five Mistakes in Moral Mathematics", pp. 67-86 of Reasons and Persons, Oxford UP

Optional: Derek Parfit, "Theories that are Directly Self-Defeating", pp. 87-114 of Reasons and Persons, Oxford UP

Midterm Exam: Due Tuesday, May 6 at 9pm via email (Distributed via email at 4pm on Friday, May 2)

1. Bernard Williams, selection from "A Critique of Utilitarianism", in Utilitarianism: For and Against, Cambridge UP

2. Thomas Hill, selection from "Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments", Environmental Ethics

3. Kwame Anthony Appiah, "Racism and Moral Pollution", Philosophical Forum

Optional: Thomas Hill, "Symbolic Protest and Calculated Silence", Philosophy and Public Affairs

Optional: Milton Friedman, "Let the Protesters Themselves Divest", New York Times

Optional: Alvin Goldman, "Why Citizens Should Vote: A Causal Responsibility Approach", Social Philosophy and Policy

Optional: Peter Singer and Jim Mason, "The Ethics of Eating Meat", in The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, Rodale

PART THREE: CASE STUDY: CLIMATE CHANGE ETHICS AND POLICY

Optional Background Reading on Climate Science

Optional: David Archer, The Long Thaw: How Humans are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth's Climate, Princeton UP (on reserve, Green Library)

Optional: Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, Cambridge UP (accessible after reading Archer)

Optional: Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Cambridge UP (accessible after reading Archer)

Do NOT read the 'Summary for Policymakers' from the IPCC reports, for reasons that John Broome explains here (instead, the 'Technical Summary' is a better bet)

May 13: Global Public Goods: The Hard Cases

1. Larry Summers, foreword to Architectures for Agreement, Cambridge UP

2. Scott Barrett, "Tipping Treaties", in Environment and Statecraft, Oxford UP

Recommended: Reread Scott Barrett, Chapter 3 of Why Cooperate? The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods, Oxford UP

May 15: Influential Perspectives on Climate Change Ethics and Policy

1. Peter Singer, "One Atmosphere", in One World, Yale UP

2. Stephen Pacala and Robert Socolow, "Stabilization Wedges: Solving the Climate Problem for the Next 50 Years With Current Technologies", Science

3. Elinor Ostrom, "Green from the Grassroots", Project Syndicate

4. Elinor Ostrom, "A Polycentric Approach to Coping with Climate Change", The World Bank

Optional: The Stabilization Wedges Game and Website

Optional: Robert Socolow, "Wedges Reaffirmed", Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Optional: Discussion of Cap and Trade, Chapters 14, 15, and 22, of The Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, Cambridge UP

Optional: EPA Fact Sheet on SO2 Cap and Trade (more information here)

Optional: William Nordhaus, "Summary for the Concerned Citizen", in A Question of Balance, Yale UP

Optional: Edella Schlager, Kirsten Engel, and Sally Rider, selections from Navigating Climate Change Policy, Arizona UP

Optional: Elinor Ostrom, selections from Understanding Institutional Diversity, Princeton UP

May 22: Geoengineering: Ethics and Policy

1. Levitt and Dubner, "Geoengineering and the Virtues of Cheap and Easy Solutions to Climate Change", in SuperFreakonomics, William Morrow

2. James Hansen, "Three Objections to Geoengineering", in Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity, Bloomsbury

3. Scott Barrett, discussion of geoengineering in Why Cooperate?, Oxford UP

Optional: David Keith, A Case for Climate Engineering, MIT Press

Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper (recommended for its general relevance)

May 27: More on Feasibility Constraints, Ethics, and Policy

1. John Broome, selections from Climate Matters: Ethics in a Warming World, Norton

2. Eric Posner and Cass Sunstein, "Climate Change Justice", Georgetown Law Journal

3. Cass Sunstein, "US Should Act Unilaterally on Climate Change", Bloomberg

4. Eric Posner and David Weisbach, selections from Climate Change Justice, Princeton UP

Optional: William Nordhaus and Joseph Boyer, "Economic Analysis of the Kyoto Protocol", Chapter 8 of Warming the World, MIT Press

Optional: "High Cost of Climate Earns Exxon Rare Environmental Win", Bloomberg

Optional: Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, "It's Not My Fault: Global Warming and Individual Moral Obligations", in Gardiner et. al. eds. Climate Ethics, Oxford UP

Optional: Ken Caldeira, "When Being Green Raises the Heat", New York Times

Optional: Joel Feinberg, analysis of the Harm Principle in Harm to Others: The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law, Oxford UP

Optional: Peter Singer, "Make meat-eaters pay: ethicist proposes radical tax, says they're killing themselves and the planet", NY Daily News

1. Bill McKibben, "The Case for Fossil-Fuel Divestment", Rolling Stone

2. Robert Stavins, "Divestment is No Substitute for Real Action on Climate Change", Yale Environment 360

3. Milton Friedman, "Let the Protesters Themselves Divest", New York Times

4. Michael Sandel, "It's Immoral to Buy the Right to Pollute" (with replies), New York Times

Optional: "Stanford to Divest from Coal Companies", Stanford University Press Release

Optional: Bill McKibben, "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math", Rolling Stone

Optional: Dan Ariely, "The Cost of Social Norms", in Predictably Irrational, Harper

Optional: Lior Jacob Strahilevitz, "How Changes in Property Regimes Influence Social Norms: Commodifying California's Carpool Lanes", Indiana Law Journal

Optional: Thomas Schelling, interview in The Atlantic (part 2 of 2)

Optional: Desmond Tutu, "Why I support the call on Stanford University to Divest from the Israeli Occupation", Stanford Daily



June 3, Final Presentations In Class, and Playtesting with External Experts



June 10, 6:30pm: Final Paper Due via Email



Optional Recommended Further Readings