Jonathan Thakkar

Jonathan Thakkar
  • Lecturer

Contact Information

Overview

Jonny Thakkar is an assistant professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College as well as one of the founding editors of The Point.

After receiving his PhD from the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago in 2013, he spent three years at Princeton University as a postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts and then one year at the University of British Columbia as an assistant professor of Philosophy before joining Swarthmore in 2017.

His first book, Plato as Critical Theorist, was published by Harvard University Press in Spring 2018. He has articles published or forthcoming in The European Journal of Philosophy, History of Political Thought, and The Cambridge Handbook of Privatization.

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Teaching

Current Courses (Spring 2024)

  • LGST2260 - Markets,morality&capital

    This course invites students to carefully evaluate one of the fundamental building blocks of capitalism, namely the institution of markets. What is the point of markets? In what ways do markets free us and in what ways do they constrain us? Are there some goods for which it is wrong to have a market? Are markets somehow undemocratic? Is equality compatible with the existence of markets? In reflecting on these questions we will necessarily also be reflecting on the basic structure of our own societies. This course will develop your ability to make and evaluate arguments, both in writing and in conversation, and thereby help you think clearly and critically about politics and society. It will also expose you to an array of arguments from across the political spectrum that will present powerful challenges to your existing beliefs and thereby force you to consider what you really believe and why. Grades will be based on two papers and class participation.

    LGST2260001 ( Syllabus )

All Courses

  • LGST2260 - Markets,Morality&Capital

    This course invites students to carefully evaluate one of the fundamental building blocks of capitalism, namely the institution of markets. What is the point of markets? In what ways do markets free us and in what ways do they constrain us? Are there some goods for which it is wrong to have a market? Are markets somehow undemocratic? Is equality compatible with the existence of markets? In reflecting on these questions we will necessarily also be reflecting on the basic structure of our own societies. This course will develop your ability to make and evaluate arguments, both in writing and in conversation, and thereby help you think clearly and critically about politics and society. It will also expose you to an array of arguments from across the political spectrum that will present powerful challenges to your existing beliefs and thereby force you to consider what you really believe and why. Grades will be based on two papers and class participation.

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