The September School of Philosophy, Economics and Politics (September 5-9, 2012, Moeciu)
The decades of suppression of critical thinking suffocated civic culture and social scientific knowledge in Romania. The September School, the annual CADI and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung seminar, is expanding educational options and forms networks of people interested in the theoretical and practical aspects of institutional development.
Reports on previous editions are available here and here.
Special Guests:
DAVID SCHMIDTZ is Kendrick Professor of Philosophy, joint Professor of Economics at the University of Arizona, and founding director of Arizona’s Freedom Center. He is author of Elements of Justice, counted as one of the decade’s „Top Ten Pro-Liberty Books” by Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the main catalyst and connector of worldwide free market organizations. Over fifty of David Schmidtz’s essays enjoy translations in foreign languages. Elements of Justice has been published in Romanian, with Humanitas.
JERRY GAUS is a James E. Rogers Professor of Philosophy at the University of Arizona. Jerry Gaus and David Schmidtz are among those responsible for their department’s being ranked the “best graduate program in political philosophy in the English Speaking world” by the Philosophical Gourmet, the best known ranking guide for academic programs in Philosophy in the world. Jerry Gaus’s book The Order of Public Reason, published 2010, was called by Loren Lomasky at the University of Virginia “one of the most ambitious and accomplished works in moral philosophy of the first decade of the new century”. Here is a detailed public discussion by a reading group on this book.
VIRGIL STORR is a Senior Research Fellow and Director of Graduate Student Programs at the Mercatus Center, George Mason University. Richard Wilk, professor of anthropology at Indiana University says Virgil Storrr’s book, Understanding the Culture of Markets, published 2012, is a „deep and innovative study that carves out new intellectual territory for economics”. In 2010, Virgil Storr and Emily Chamlee-Wright published a critical examination of the public policy environment surrounding post disaster social coordination and community recovery.
MICHAEL MUNGER is Professor at the Departments of Political Science, Economics, and School of Public Policy at Duke University and also Director of the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program at Duke. Mike Munger is author of Analyzing Policy: Choices, Conflicts and Practice, published 2000, and a long time contributor to EconLib, the Library of Economics and Liberty. In 2008 Michael Munger was the Libertarian candidate for the position of Governor of North Carolina. Previous to that year, the party had not qualified to appear on the North Carolina ballot.
NICO LANGE is deputy Head of the Department of Politics and Consulting of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation since 2012. He headed the Ukraine Office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation between 2006 and 2012 and tought Politial Science and International Relations at the University of Greifswald, at the Department for International Relations of the State University of St. Petersburg and at the National Mohyla Academy of Kiev. Prior to his engagement with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, he worked in the scientific staff ot fhe German Bundestag, and between 2003 and 2006 he represented the Robert Bosch Foundation in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Prospective schedule:
Wednesday, 5th
4: 30pm: Opening addresses by Florin Sari, Program Coordinator, Romania Office, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and Ionut Sterpan, Program Coordinator, Center for Institutional Analysis and Development.
5pm: Jerry Gaus: Classical Liberalisms.
7pm: Dinner
Thursday, 6th:
10am: Michael Munger: Truly Voluntary Exchange.
12am: Virgil Storr: Defending the Market.
2pm: Lunch
5pm: Book launch. Schmidtz, David. 2012. Elements of Justice, tr. R. by Tudor Glodeanu and Ionut Sterpan: Elemente ale dreptatii. Bucuresti: Humanitas.
7pm: Dinner
Friday, 7th
10am: Michael Munger: Dealing With Pollution through Free Trade.
12am: Virgil Storr: Entrepreneurship and Post-Disaster Recovery.
2pm: Lunch
5pm: David Schmidtz: When is Private Appropriation Required, When is Communal Property Preferable.
7pm: Dinner
Saturday, 8th
10am: Workshop on the Evolution of Social Norms.
12am: Jerry Gaus: Social Rules. The Outcome of Evolution and the Object of Rational Improvement.
2pm: Lunch
5pm: Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Workshop on Ordoliberalism and the Social Market Economy.
6: 30pm: Farewell Address by Sven Irmer, Executive Director, Romania Office, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.
7pm: Dinner
10pm: Farewell Party
Sunday, 9th
11pm: Workshop on Civil Society and Political Participation in the US, Germany, Romania.
1pm: Lunch.
Impressions:
"The September School on Philosophy, Economics and Politics organized by CADI and KAS in 2012 was one of the high level academic conferences of the year held in Romania. The exceptional panel from top US Universities made us aware of the most important debates in the economic approach to political philosophy currently salient in the anglo-saxon world and it developed our 'thirst for knowledge' in various connected fields. The 2013 September School is definitely an event which no research-oriented student in political science or political philosophy will want to miss." (A.V.)
„The September School was the ideal experience that students at the beginning of their way need in order to form intellectually and to discover that only by reading a lot one could express solid opinions about any subject. Thank you for bringing those positive professors, so generous in sharing life lessons and precious information.” (B.S.)
“I am happy I attended the event and that I met special people. Thank you and I wish you the best of luck in the future!” (A.R.)
“It was a wonderful experience. The conferences were thought-provoking and a bit less technical than usual, to allow the public with less training in philosophy and economics to follow them more easily. Some of the talks were also entertaining, the general atmosphere was relaxed and friendly. As for the accommodation, I think no one can have any objections to it. All in all, I really enjoyed the time I spent in Moeciu with the people who attended the September School and I would like to congratulate the organizers for making this successful event possible.” (C.G.)
“I enjoyed every day of The September School of Philosophy, Economics and Politics thanks to the great people I met there: professors and students as well. I hope to keep in touch with some of them and met again at events like the one you organized.” (R.A.)
Multimedia: clip available on youtube and photos on the event’s facebook page.
A project by: The Center for Institutional Analysis and Development –Eleutheria (CADI) and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), Romanian and Moldovan Office.
