About the event:
“Socialism, Social Democracy and Capitalism: A debate on which is right for America”
Brian Leiter, Karl N. Llewellyn Professor of Jurisprudence, and Director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values at the University of Chicago Law School (http://www.brianleiter.net/) will speak in favor of social democracy (and perhaps eventual socialism). Professor Leiter is an expert in moral, political and legal philosophy; constitutional law; evidence; freedom of speech and religion; and academic freedom. He is presently working on projects in moral psychology and meta-ethics (often in relation to Nietzsche), on realism as a theme in political and legal theory, on meta-ethical and metaphysical questions in general jurisprudence, and on philosophical issues about free speech, in both the liberal and Marxian traditions.
Bryan Caplan, Professor Economics at George Mason University and Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center (http://www.bcaplan.com/ ) will speak in favor of capitalism. Professor Caplan specializes in public economics, public choice, psychology and economics, public opinion, economics of the family and education, genoeconomics, and Austrian economics. A great deal of his professional work has been devoted to the philosophies of libertarianism and free-market capitalism. He is a blogger at EconLog along with Arnold Kling.