Date: 19th February 2025
Time: Drinks reception: 6-7pm
Lecture: 7-8:30pm
Venue: EDEN Event Suite, Liverpool Hope University,
Hope Park, Taggart Avenue, Liverpool, L16 9JD

The Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2025. As part of the celebrations a series of six Distinguished Lectures is being held across six different cities around the UK, with each lecture being hosted by one of the society's regional branches. As part of this series, Liverpool Hope’s School of Education is hosting a distinguished lecture by Professor Daniel Weinstock of McGill University on the topic of ‘Lotteries and Educational Equality’.

Detailed Description

Lotteries and Educational Equality

 

Assignment to advantage-conferring educational institutions in countries like Canada and the UK still largely proceeds against the backdrop of a philosophically discredited view of merit. Demand for places in such institutions, moreover, largely exceeds supply. In this context, the role of lotteries in carrying out such assignment deserves serious attention. Where we can't really determine who deserves what, and where too many people want the same thing (for their kids), weighted lotteries may end up being the fairest way of carrying out such assignments. In this paper I will make the case for lotteries, and discuss some of the practical and philosophical quandaries they would raise.

Daniel Weinstock holds the Katharine A. Pearson Chair in Civil Society and Public Policy at McGill University. He is a Full Professor in the Faculty of Law, the Department of Philosophy, the Max Bell School in Public Policy, and the School of Population and Global Health. His work has spanned widely across a wide range of topics at the intersection of philosophy and public policy.