On Saturday, October 12 the Center for Public Choice and Market Process hosted a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Symposium at the College of Charleston. The purpose of this conference was to bring together scholars of these areas to highlight the interdisciplinary nature of each. In doing so, the importance of analyzing our society and government through the lens of each discipline was made clear.

The symposium included three panels and a presentation led by faculty members from the College of Charleston, Creighton University, Troy University, and the Citadel. The three panels covered criminal justice reform, income inequality, and democracy and partisanship. After these panels, Dr. Sobel from the Citadel presented on Cronyism in the US government.  

I found the first panel on criminal justice reform particularly interesting. In this discussion, Dr. McGinnis (Political Science), Dr. Miller (Economics), and Dr. Baker (Philosophy) each shared insights from their subjects regarding specific aspects of the prison system. Dr. McGinnis discussed limitations on civil participation placed on those who are formerly incarcerated, specifically the inability to serve on juries. She explained how the symbolism of this lack of participation represents a failure in our democracy. Dr. Miller shared about work he and his colleagues conducted in Alabama in response to proposed prison reform. The government of Alabama wanted to consolidate prisons in the state into a few very large facilities, and Dr. Miller explained the many social factors that would make such a project infeasible and problematic. Dr. Baker presented on ethical policing. She applied methods to promote ethical practice in Health Care settings to policing and explained benefits and challenges to this application.

In this presentation on criminal justice reform as well as the others, it was very interesting to see how political science, philosophy, and economics intersect. It became clear that social problems can really only be understood by applying all three disciplines. The scholars in each focused on different aspects of each topic and brought different insights and ideas. Overall, this event was very informative and eye-opening.

-Rachel Bradley