If all goes as planned, George Mason University’s undergraduate Philosophy, Politics and Economics program -- a joint effort between the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government -- will host regular symposiums with big-name presenters drawn from politics, journalism and academe.
For the first one, though, “I’m the low-cost option,” deadpanned Steven Pearlstein, the Pulitzer Prize winning economics columnist at The Washington Post and a Robinson Professor of Public and International Affairs at George Mason.
Pearlstein will give three free lectures, March 28-30 in the Fenwick Library’s main reading room. Each begins at 4:30 p.m. They are open to anyone.
As a whole the lectures are titled “Are Markets Just? Resolving Capitalism’s Moral Contradictions.” The March 28 subject: “Is Greed Good?” March 29: “Not-So-Just Deserts.” March 30: “Fairness vs. Growth, a False Choice.”
“I had hoped to take this argument from the sort of stale debate between ‘inequality is bad and it’s always too much’ on one side, versus ‘the markets do everything right and leave the markets alone,’ ” Pearlstein said. “Neither of those is a very satisfactory way to resolve these tensions, so I thought I would take another stab at it, I hope in a fresh and interesting way.”
Pearlstein will lecture for about 50 minutes, with each lecture followed by the views of a responder. Mason assistant philosophy professor Derek Boyd will be the responder for the first lecture. Isabel Sawhill of the Brookings Institution will be the responder for the second lecture. Jerry Muller, author and professor of history at Catholic University, will be the responder for the third.
“I obviously have a point of view and you won’t miss that point of view,” Pearlstein said. “But I mostly want (attendees) to think hard about it and think clearly about it, and not in an overly academic way.”
Pearlstein, who developed the symposium with Matt Scherer, director of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics program and assistant professor of government and politics in the Schar School hopes the event is a springboard to more in the future.
“They showcase the kind of thinking that takes place in what is an innovative and unique interdisciplinary program that provides the students and larger community unparalleled insight into the key problems of the day,” Scherer said.