## PHIL 181: Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature with Prof. Tamar Gendler

### Lecture 23 - Social Structures [April 12, 2011] | << previous session | next session >>

### Overview:

Professor Gendler begins by recapping the topic of state legitimacy and then offers a way of understanding the disagreement between Rawls and Nozick as one over what states ought to do given the phenomena of moral luck. She then turns to a discussion of how social and cultural structures influence both our characters and our perception of the world. She begins by discussing ways in which this theme plays a role in the work of Aristotle and John Stuart Mill. She then discusses recent empirical work on this question, including a body of anthropological and psychological literature that suggests that individuals raised in societies that are Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic have highly atypical responses in a wide range of cases.

### Reading assignment:

Sunstein, Selections from “Social Norms and Social Roles”

Henrich, Selections from “The Weirdest People in the World”

Ross, The Person and the Situation, pp. 27-58

### Resources:

Reading Guide 23 [PDF]

Credit List [PDF]

### Transcript

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