Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy: George Mason University. The Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy brings philosophical analysis – the examination of values and the clarification of concepts – to the discussion of pressing issues in public policy.
Institute News and Events
February, 2013
Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly launches an online submission, review, and publishing system
December, 2012
Gwynne Taraska, "Kyoto Negotiations Continue at the Doha Climate Talks," Center for American Progress
Andrew Light and Gwynne Taraska in Climate Progress, "Kabuki Theatre: Calls for US Negotiators to Leave Doha Are Unproductive and Inconsistent"
Andrew Light, Gwynne Taraska, et al., "Doha Summit Ends with the Long March to 2015," Center for American Progress
November, 2012
Andrew Light and Rebecca Lefton, "What to Expect in Doha: An Overview of the 2012 U.N. Climate Change Negotiations," Center for American Progress
September, 2012
Andrew Light testifies before US Congress on EPA's foreign grant recipients, September 2012.
June, 2012
Erik Angner in Politico: "Health Care Policy Libertarians Go For"
Andrew Light in The Hill: "Rio+20: How the Brazilians Can Save Themselves from Their Own Meeting"
Andrew Light and Gwynne Taraska on Rio+20 in Climate Progress:
As Disappointment Spreads At Rio+20, Will Public-Private Commitments Fill The Gap? by Gwynne Taraska and Stephen Lacey
UN’s Sustainable Energy For All Initiative Gets A Boost At Troubled Rio Summit, by Gwynne Taraska
How The Rio+20 Text Could Have Been Stronger, by Adam James, Andrew Light, and Gwynne Taraska
May, 2012
Erik Angner's new book, A Course in Behavioral Economics, is now available.
Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0230304540, May 22, 2012.
Andrew Light and Gwynne Taraska judge NY Times contest on the ethics of meat.
Kaminer, A. The meat you eat. The Ethicist, The New York Times. 6 May 2012.
April, 2012
Lisa Eckenwiler's new book, Long-term Care, Globalization, and Justice, is now available.
Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 1421405504, April 13, 2012.
February, 2012
John Podesta and Andrew Light in Politico: "New Global Deal on Climate Change"
Lisa Eckenwiler, Senior Fellow of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, has been selected to participate in Center for Humans and Nature's research project Frontiers of Ethics: Ethics of Care and Place.
December 29, 2011
From Philosophical Training to Professional Blogging: A Conversation with David Roberts (Grist), Andrew Sullivan (The Daily Beast), and Matthew Yglesias (Slate)
Special event at the Eastern APA
Washington, DC
Sponsored by the Committee on Public Philosophy of the American Philosophical Association and the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy
Some of the most talented professional bloggers in the U.S. have backgrounds in philosophy. Is this just a coincidence or is there a causal relationship between philosophical training and the demands of professional blogging? In addition to learning about the philosophical backgrounds and abiding interests of three of the most prominent bloggers in the U.S., we'll discuss how the emergence of this new journalistic medium could provide a new substantive professional venue for some of our most talented students and a significant outlet for public philosophy.
Panelists
Andrew Sullivan is one of the world's most widely read bloggers. He started blogging in 2000, moving to The Atlantic.com in 2007 and then to The Daily Beast in April 2010. Andrew earned his Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard, winning the government dissertation prize. He is the author of five books including Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality; Intimations Pursued: The Voice of Practice in the Conversation of Michael Oakeshott; and The Conservative Soul: Fundamentalism, Freedom, and the Future of the Right. Read more of his work here, http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com.
Matthew Yglesias is the business and economics correspondent at Slate. He was previously at Think Progress, The Atlantic, TPM Media, and The American Prospect. His is the author of Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats, and the forthcoming The Rent Is Too Damn High. Hailed by E.J. Dionne at The Washington Post as "one of the smartest voices in the blogosphere," Matt has a B.A. in philosophy from Harvard. Read more of his work here, http://www.slate.com/authors.matthew_yglesias.html.
David Roberts is a Staff Writer at the environmental magazine Grist. He received an M.A. in philosophy from the University of Montana and was well into a Ph.D. in philosophy on pragmatism and ethics at the University of Alberta before turning to a series of professional writing positions in the high tech sector in Seattle. Since joining Grist in 2003, he has become one of the most prominent environmental journalists and opinion writers in America, coining the now ubiquitous term "Climate Hawk." Read more of his work here, http://www.grist.org/people/David+Roberts.
Session organizer and chair, Andrew Light, is Associate Director, Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy, George Mason University, and a Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C.
December 2011
UN Climate Change conference in Durban
Andrew Light returns from the UN Climate Change conference in Durban.
Interview on WNYC's The Takeaway >>
Panel discussion on KQED's Forum >>
November 2011
Mark Sagoff is named Senior Fellow of the Breakthrough Institute
The public policy think tank The Breakthrough Institute has announced Mark Sagoff as one of its six Senior Fellows of 2012, calling him, in its press release, "America's most trenchant environmental philosopher."
October 6 - 8, 2011
Advancing Publicly Engaged Philosophy
Sponsored by the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy
Washington, DC
"Values and Public Life"
Opening Plenary, Center for American Progress
Introductions
Andrew Light (George Mason University & Center for American Progress)
Moderator
Hanna Rosin (The Atlantic & Slate)
Panelists
Anita Allen (U. Pennsylvania & Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues)
EJ Dionne (The Washington Post & Brookings Institution)
William Galston (Brookings Institution)
Mark Sagoff (George Mason University)
January 2011
George Mason University charters the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy
The College of Humanities and Social Sciences is pleased to announce the chartering of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University. The institute, led by Mark Sagoff (Director) and Andrew Light (Associate Director), brings philosophical analysis – the examination of values and the clarification of concepts – to the discussion of pressing issues in public policy. Institute members address moral, legal, and societal concerns that arise, for example, with emerging technologies, international development, and global demands for justice. The concepts and values that frame arguments about public policy are often as important as the facts to which they respond. Research at the institute will be conducted by resident scholars and interdisciplinary teams composed of historians, philosophers, political scientists, and sociologists at Mason and other institutions around the world. The institute has recently brought two new faculty to Mason – Erik Angner, who has been Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Economics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Gwynne Taraska, who is a recent PhD graduate in philosophy from the University of Washington in Seattle. The institute will publish Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly and, in conjunction with the University of Colorado, Ethics, Policy, and Environment.