Cass Sunstein Archives - Public Seminar

Politics

How to Move Beyond Our Endless Disagreements over Abortion Policies

A Kantian solution to what seems an insoluble moral conflict

November 8, 2023 • by Helga Varden

Philosophy can help us understand why such laws do not and, in fact, cannot depend upon our deeply personal beliefs. The Kantian philosophical tradition, for instance, has the advantage of appealing to anyone who is committed to each person’s right to freedom....

How to Move Beyond Our Endless Disagreements over Abortion Policies

Blue Monday

American Socialism Is Nothing to Be Afraid About

Defeating Trump Politically, Part 3

February 25, 2019 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

Note: A shorter version of this piece was published yesterday at The Daily Beast here. Thanks to Michael Tomasky for his help. Socialism has captured the attention of American elites in a big way. On the right, it is clear that Donald Trump and his Republican followers are intent on using Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ...

American Socialism Is Nothing to Be Afraid About

Feature

What Cass Sunstein Gets Wrong About Marxism, Sanders, and American Politics

Heightening the Contradictions and Missing the Point

October 31, 2017 • by Jan Dutkiewicz and Andrew Norris

Sunstein mentions, in his lone footnote, that his account of Marx and Lenin’s views on “heightening the contradictions” is “a brisk summary of some famously complex and ambiguous arguments.” But the problem is not that his summary is overly brisk, but that it is fundamentally inaccurate and is used as ...

Feature

Thaler’s Nobel Does Not Challenge Mainstream Economics

Prizing nudges over shoves misjudges what we need right now

October 31, 2017 • by Eli Cook

Behavioral economics contends that economic agents -- contrary to orthodoxy theory -- do not always behave in ‘rational’ ways. Human beings base their decisions on "biases" or "heuristics." For example, behavioral economists argue that we tend to overvalue things we already own. This is known as an “endowment effect.” The experiments ...