PHIL 5983: Seminar: Reason, Technology, and Democracy
Thursdays, 3:30-5:45; Remote Delivery
January 14
A Priori Solutions (Ideals?) for Practical Social Problems
Week 1 Notes: Mill, Goldman and Cox, Madison
January 21
Social Identities and Democracy
Week 2 Notes: Achen and Bartels (Chapters 1, 8-9)
January 28
Rationalization and Self-Deception in Political Decision-Making
Week 3 Notes: Achen and Bartles (Chapter 10), Schkade et al., and Williams
February 4
Cultural Cognition, Expressive Responding, and Belief Signaling
Week 4 Notes: Kahan, Bullock et al., Berinsky, and Funkhouser
February 11
Lazy or Motivated?
Week 5 Notes.: Pennycook and Rand (Who Falls), Pennycook and Rand (Lazy), and Khanna and Sood
February 18
Filtering and Polarization
Week 6 Notes: Flaxman et al. and Sunstein (#Republic, Chapters 1-3)
February 25
Fake News: General
Week 7 Notes: Allcott and Gentzkow, Guess et al., and Levy and Ross
March 4
Fake News: Political Conspiracies
Week 8 Notes: Sunstein and Vermeule, Douglas et al., and Zuckerman
March 11
Gullibility and the Nature of Belief
Week 9 Notes: Gilbert, Mandelbaum and Quilty-Dunn, Porot and Mandelbaum, and Sperber et al.
March 18
Gullibility, Cont'd
Week 10 Notes: Mercier (Not Born Yesterday, Chapters 1-3, 9, 13, 16) [No Notes]
March 25
No Class -- Spring Break
April 1
Alternatives to Belief
Week 11 Notes: Brennan, Caplan, and Gendler
April 8
Network Effects: The Spread of Misinformation
Week 12 Notes: Zollman, Rosenstock et al., and Tornberg
April 15
Network Effects: Polarization and Partisanship
Week 13 Notes: Shi et al., Becker et al., and Becker et al. #2
April 22
Propaganda
Week 14 Notes: Stanley (How Propaganda Works, Introduction, Chapters 1-2)
April 29
Propaganda, Cont'd
Week 15 Notes: Stanley (How Propaganda Works, Chapters 3, 5-6)
Final Paper Due