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Economics is the study of the decisions societies make about the production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services - all of the things we need to live our lives.

This course will equip you with the tools you need to understand major ideas and themes in economics, develop political positions based on your understanding of competing economic theories and ideas, and define your own place in the world in economic and political terms. A set of tools that will allow you to grapple with the incredible complexity of the world. A set of tools that will allow you to consciously shape and explore your own humanity.

And at its heart is you - a human being, thrown into the world. A fragile, unique, contingent human life - inescapably grounded in a specific spatial, historical context. Born in a world where economic and political decisions have already been made for thousands of years - shaping your present, and building the world in which you find yourself. A contingent world, one that could be organized and structured in many different ways, but is this way . You were born to a family, in a country that you didn't choose. Speaking a language, following a faith, saluting a flag that you didn't choose. You attend a school, and learn lessons that you did not choose.

This course is about the way that a human being is shaped and structured by the world in which they find themselves and about developing a set of tools through which you can grapple with the biggest questions imaginable - how should I live? What is good and just? How do I know? How can the study of economics help me to decide?