Democracy & Economic Inequality w/ Philosopher ARASH ABIZADEH - Highlights

"I had a tumultuous upbringing as a kid. My parents moved around quite a bit. I was a child in North America for many years, and then we went to Iran for five years. We were there during the revolution, so I saw a lot of political activity and a lot of tumult as a young child. Then we came back to Canada where I grew up. The experience of escaping a dangerous political situation is definitely something that has marked me as a child and drew me to thinking about issues of social justice, political stability, and different types of political regimes. As a political theorist or a political philosopher, we think very hard about empirical questions in social science and the foundational philosophical questions. That's something that really drew me to this field. Philosophical investigation is a discipline that trains people to think analytically, clearly, and rigorously. It's the kind of thinking required in all domains of the sciences, in all domains of the social sciences, and in many aspects of life to be able to think critically." Arash Abizadeh is the R.B. Angus Professor of Political Science at McGill University. His research has focused on democratic theory, including topics such as immigration and border control. Abizadeh also specializes in 17th and 18th century philosophy and has recently published the book Hobbes and the Two Faces of Ethics. He is currently working on a book about social and political power and is the Associate Editor of Free & Equal: a Journal of Ethics and Public Affairs.