Since 2017, Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde, Professor of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and CREDO member, has taught a very interesting and unique course for a secular university. The course entitled, “Foundations of Market Economies” focuses on the role of markets in modern economies and their historical evolution but also blends in material on markets and theories of justice. The syllabus reads from everything from pro-market economists like Smith, Hayek, and Friedman to other historic thinkers like Keynes and even Marx, to modern philosophers in social ethics like Finnis, Rawles, Sandel, and Sen.
How did he manage to teach such a unique course at a leading economics department and secular university?
Fernandez-Villaverde explains that he introduced the course with about 75 percent of traditional material, while 25 percent of the course was dedicated to theories of justice. “I could introduce the material without causing initial concerns by administrators and colleagues. 25 percent content is well within the freedom one has in structuring a class within existing course titles.”
He says the key to teaching material like this at a secular university is to be fair and honest. He spends the same amount of time on Adam Smith as he does on Karl Marx, for example. He notes that universities currently tend to be so ideologically biased that his students enjoy it immensely when they see that he is being honest and fair.
He notes that teaching at a secular university, his course is not explicitly Catholic, however. He teaches a more explicitly Catholic course called Markets and Morals over the summer at the Elm Institute.
In addition to his advice to fair and balanced, Fernandez-Villaverde gives several other pieces of advice to anyone who would want to introduce a similar course. First, promise your chair or dean that students will like the course; then make sure you deliver. Second, keep the intellectual standards and rigor at a high level. Third, start slow. Begin with a limited amount of ethics, and then expand either within the existing course or as a new course. Fourth, be flexible. You may find it best to co-teach with someone else in another department. You may also need to introduce the course on a teaching overload, where you bear the risk. Again, rule one is to make sure the students like the course though.
“For good or for bad, the modern secular university is shamelessly consumer-driven. Deans love happy students. We have something important to tell them and students will be happy to hear it if you do it well.”
