PHILOSOPHY FOR WORKERS III
SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Do Egoism, Consumerism, Nationalism, Militarism, Sexism,
Racism, and Homophobia Make Social Change Impossible?
Philosophy For Workers aims to enable the participants to generate new ideas for how the social,
economic, political, cultural, and environmental crises currently ravaging our city can be solved.
The third course will examine the oft-repeated argument that social problems are the result of
“human nature.” The assumption is that human nature naturally generates various forms of
difference which constitute the basis of social conflicts. Since, it is further assumed,
human nature cannot be changed, neither can social problems ever be fully solved. The course
will focus on seven of the most important causes of social conflict. Our aim will be to
investigate whether the assumptions stated above are sound, or, if not, what their real social function might be. As with the previous two courses our main interest is not abstract debate but
learning that can help build movements capable of solving the problems we examine.
Everyone is welcome. There is no charge for participation. Readings will be provided.
The course will meet 8 times, on Wednesday evenings from 7-8:30, between May 19th and July 14th at the Windsor Worker Action Centre, 328 Pellisier Street, Downtown Windsor, Across from the Capitol Theatre.
For Information please contact Jeff Noonan: jnoonan@uwindsor.ca
Past Courses
Where We Are, How We Got Here, and Where Can We Go?
This course is FREE!
The first meeting is Wednesday February 18th, 7pm:
*Introduction, explanation of aims, and general discussion of procedures.
The group will meet once a week for seven weeks, for 1.5 or 2 hours each meeting.
The aim of the discussion group is to develop a critical understanding of the current socio-economic and political problems facing workers of Windsor and Essex County. We cannot understand these problems unless we investigate the system of values that rules political choices, and we cannot understand this system of values without philosophical investigation of how those in power reason about the choices they make (and impose on everyone else).
The discussion group will be organized by the three questions in its title. First, we will investigate the historical development of capitalism as a system of value that functions by imposing a price on everything. Second, we will examine the contemporary effects of the globalization of this system of value. Third, we will investigate alternative systems of value and the different possibilities for solving real life problems that they open up.
Reading Schedule and Dates
1. Wednesday Feb. 18th, 7pm: Introduction, explanation of aims, general discussion of procedures.
2. Wednesday Feb. 25th, 7pm: What is a Value System? the difference between descriptive and normative claims, the difference between natural and social systems
John McMurtry: “Introduction,” Unequal Freedoms
Jeff Noonan: “Social Conflict and the Life-Ground of Value”
3) Wednesday March 4th, 7pm : Are there universal values? What is a value in general, what conditinos must obtain for there to be values, why are there different values at different times and places- does this that there are no universal values?
Stephen Lukes, “Liberals and Cannibals”
John McMurtry, selections from What is Good, What is Bad: The Value of all Values Across Times, Places, and Theories.”
4. Wednesday March 11th, 7pm: What value system currently rules? what is capitalism as a value system, how did it arise, what other values does it rule out- how does it hide these other values from us?
Karl Marx, Selections from Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, and Capital, Volume 1.
5. Wednesday March 18th, 7pm: The Current crisis of the Ruling value system—What is going on, economically, environmentally?
Luke Cooper, “From Global Credit Crunch to Global Recession.”
Mary Lynn Cramer, “The Multi-trillion Dollar Question: Whose Consumption Drives the Economy?”
Leo Panitch, “From the Global Crisis to Canada’s Crisis”
John Bellamy Foster, “Capitalism’s Environmental Crisis: is technology the Answer.”
6. Wednesday march 25th, 7pm: Life-Value. what does life-value mean, what becomes of life-value under capitalism, how can life-value be the principle of a different world?
Herbert Marcuse, selections from An Essay on Liberation
John McMurtry, selections from Unequal Freedoms
7. Wednesday April 1st, 7pm: Alternatives. what would a life-valuable economy look like, how would we make a living within it, is it really possible to build one, how long would it take?
Pat Devine, selections from Democracy and Economic Planning
Jeff Noonan, “Normative Political Economy.”