Ethics
Resources for Matt Cleaver's ethics classes

Politics

I often have students come to me with an interest in politics. Here are some resources for getting started with making sense of our current political environment in a (mostly) non-partisan way. I have copies of all of the books below, and I can also probably get copies at the TVCC library if you would like.

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Why does it feel like politics is broken?

When most people come to me with an interest in politics, I find that they are trying to answer this primary question: “Why does it feel like politics is broken?” The three resources, below, are by authors of various backgrounds: one is an economist, one is a social psychologist, and the third is a political scientist. These three resources help to lay a good foundation for political thinking and help to answer that primary question. If you can only read one, I would start with The Righteous Mind.

  • The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides by Arnold S. Kling (economist). This is a very short, concise book (150 pages) by a libertarian-leaning economist. From the book description: “Progressives, conservatives, and libertarians, he argues, are ‘like tribes speaking different languages. As a result, political discussions do not lead to agreement. Instead, most political commentary serves to increase polarization.’”
  • The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt (social psychologist). From the book description: “Drawing on his twenty-five years of groundbreaking research on moral psychology, Jonathan Haidt shows how moral judgments arise not from reason but from gut feelings. He shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians have such different intuitions about right and wrong, and he shows why each side is actually right about many of its central concerns.” At 528 pages, the book is long, but it is worth your times.
  • “Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics.” Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is a political scientist who helps to to make sense of why it is that “bad people” are often able to thrive in different political regimes. All of the following resources say essentially the same thing, but go into different levels of depth: