Public Policy and Ethics

A special issue of Philosophies (ISSN 2409-9287).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 26

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Section for Philosophy, Department of Communication, University of Copenhagen, 1172 København, Denmark
Interests: applied philosophy; public health; public reason; political philosophy; climate change; pluralism and disagreement
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Much contemporary political and social philosophy, as well as political epistemology, concerns the issue of pluralism—whether reasonable or otherwise. State policies aim at the collective (the people),yet reasonable disagreement persists across a host of normative concerns. This Issue invites all that can contribute to this debate. What is the proper, justified, or desirable relationship between public policies—which target collectives—and ethics, which, at least in a certain sense, pertain to the private sphere?

Contributions may be applied (e.g., what policies are justified with respect to climate change? How can public health initiatives be squared with reasonable pluralism and disagreement about the value of health?) or purely theoretical (e.g., what is the relation between meta-ethics and collective justification? Can public reason function without references to truth?).

Whether offering practical solutions or theoretical inquiries, submissions should clearly articulate the author(s)'  philosophical standpoint and explain its relevance to existing 

philosophical debates on the subject.

The Issue welcomes diverse philosophical traditions and approaches that can deepen our understanding of these challenges.

Dr. Morten Ebbe Juul Nielsen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Philosophies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • pluralism
  • reasonable disagreement
  • public reason
  • conciliationism
  • political epistemology
  • justification

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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