Winter Term Course - January 2005

Courses for Upper-Class Honors Students

GST 408 The Economics, Politics and Science of Cigarettes
(M-F 8:30-11:30)
Professor Greg Lilly

If cigarettes are so dangerous, why do companies lawfully produce them and why do so many still smoke?  This course explores two arguments that attempt to explain this puzzle.  In Argument 1 the cigarette industry provides a case study explaining how our economic system corrupts society. Under Argument 1, capitalism creates and promotes greed, and greed makes people incapable of acting upon fundamental human values.  In Argument 2 the puzzle is resolved through a questioning of the scientific evidence.  Perhaps the often-quoted "facts" about the dangers of cigarettes are a politically motivated exaggeration of the scientific evidence; thus, both the individual choice to smoke and the social choice to allow a cigarette market can be construed as rational.