PP406      Half Unit
Philosophy for Public Policy

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

The course reflects on the design and evaluation of public policies from a philosophical perspective. To this end, we study a range of theories and concepts that are used by philosophers in policy evaluation. Each week focuses on specific policy issues of wide social importance. The course addresses questions such as the following.

• What is a good public measure of well-being and how should we assess the distribution of well-being across individuals in society?
• Why do inequalities in wealth and income matter (if they do), and which policies, if any, should states adopt to reduce inequalities in wealth and income?
• What, if anything, justifies the use of force by the state in policing and war, and how should institutions governing the use of force be designed?
• Should the state be neutral in relation to citizens' differing conceptions of the good life, and if so, what does such neutrality entail in different areas, including, for example, its regulation of personal relationships such as marriage?
• Should the state engage in paternalistic regulation of self-harming activities, such a drug use?
• What role, if any, should the state take in regulating the provision of and subsidizing access to higher education?

15 hours of seminars and 20 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

• W. Kymlicka (2001). Contemporary Political Philosophy: An Introduction. Oxford University Press.
• D. Hausman, M. McPherson and D. Satz (2017), Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy, and Public Policy 3rd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• G. Bognar and I. Hirose (2014). The Ethics of Health Care Rationing. London Routledge
• Voorhoeve (2019) 'Why Health-Related Inequalities Matter and Which Ones Do'. In Global Health Priority-Setting: Beyond Cost-Effectiveness. Norheim, Emanuel, and Millum (eds.)  Oxford University Press (2019): 145-161.
• A. Sen (2009), Development as Freedom. Oxford University Press.
• S. Alkire (2016) “The Capability Approach and Well-Being Measurement for Public Policy.” In Oxford Handbook on Well-being and Public Policy, Adler and Fleurbaey (eds.), chap. 21.
• E. Anderson (1999) "What is the Point of Equality?" Ethics 109 (1999): 287-337.

Exam (80%), duration: 180 Minutes in the January exam period

Presentation (10%)

Course participation (10%)

Participation Grade (10%). This will be based on contribution to the class forum and class discussion. Team presentation (10%) in the WT. Exam (80%) in the Spring term.