Penn Journal of Philosophy: Volume 14, Issue 1
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03/01/2019
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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
Publication The Middle-Class: Shouldering the Burden of Corporate Tax Havens and the Encumberment of Economic Globlization(2019-02-26) Poole, KatherineThe purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which corporate tax evasion and other vehicles of economic globalization may infringe upon the prosperity of the middle class. Corporate tax evasion has increasingly taken form in offshore financial centers, allowing wealthy individuals and corporations to engage in tax evasion, resulting in substantial losses in government tax revenues. While this loss is being compensated for by increased taxes upon the middle class, this demographic is also suffering from the slashing of programs and state-sponsored benefits due, in part, to the pervasive losses in government revenue. After exploring the effects of offshore financial centers and economic globalization on national prosperity, I will evaluate counter movements to the phenomenon as well as the legislative response designed to quell its implications, ultimately suggesting a global reform effort for the purpose of middle-class liberalization and increasing economics egalitarianism.Publication A Feminism for Everyone? How the Developed Should Help the Developing(2019-02-26) Zhu, AllenThis paper addresses both liberal and multicultural feminist concerns for the Western feminist's duty to help women around the world. Liberals accuse multiculturalists of falling into the trap of cultural essentialism, wherein they fail to hold cultures accountable for blatant human rights violations. However, liberal feminist theory both perpetuates and assumes what Alison Jagger dubs the "West is best" thesis - that the West is morally and culturally superior to non-Western cultures. I propose an agenda that accommodates concerns at both ends of the feminist spectrum. In my "multidimensional sequence for women's liberation," Western feminists must first de-Westernize the notion of human rights and seek allyship with women overseas. Then, they must hold Western institutions accountable for their previous and ongoing violations of human rights and provide reparations to the populations they have harmed, using the demands of those most oppressed to guide the process. Only after these measures have been implemented, I argue, can Western feminists critique outside cultural practices without hypocrisy, having already held their own institutions accountable for their own rights violations.Publication Publication A Letter from the Editors(2019-02-26) Wilson, Chloe; Law, PatrickPublication Inequality, Fairness and Risk(2019-02-26) Herrera, DavidExisting literature suggests that an individual's socioeconomic status may have a considerable effect on their tendency to engage in financially risky behaviors. More specifically, studies have demonstrated that victims of inequality, that is, people of low socioeconomic status or whose financial disadvantage is salient, have an increased propensity to make risky decisions. This notion, however, does not apply to all cases of economic inequality, but rather depends on the process through which income is acquired. Thus, this research attempts to challenge the current notion by varying the fairness of the process through which income is earned or given, attempting to more accurately simulate the earning of income in the real world. I hypothesize that using a "fairer" process to determine monetary distribution will curtail the risky behaviors supposedly caused by economic inequality, as opposed to a random or arbitrary (unfair) process. I also seek to determine if perceived procedural fairness can influence one's willingness to take financial risks. In situations of inequality, I find no considerable effect of distribution fairness on subsequent levels of risk involved in financial decisions.Publication Plato's Party-State: Evaluating China's Political System through the Framework of the Republic(2019-02-26) Mashaal, SamanthaChina’s political system has long been perceived as a controversial one and as somewhat perplexing to Westerners. In an attempt to understand the stability and success of the system, I evaluate the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) post-Mao society by comparing it to the “just society” described in Plato’s Republic. Plato’s philosophy is an appropriate standard against which the Chinese system can be assessed, because Plato does not believe in democracy and thus does not entertain its “advantages.” What’s more, the Republic is classified as a utopia, meaning a place in which the state of things is perfect. As a result, Plato’s society is not affected by certain situational complications that would need to be considered, and would likely cloud the clarity of my argument, should I have chosen to use the political system of an existing country as my benchmark. In this paper, I will ultimately conclude that the Chinese political system satisfies enough of Plato’s criteria for a “just society” to be deemed an effective regime. In closing, I will offer my own opinion as to whether or not Plato’s model can truly offer a useful lens through which one may better understand the Chinese political system.