Director
Mark Sagoff
msagoff@gmu.edu
Associate Director
Andrew Light
alight1@gmu.edu
Website
http://ippp.gmu.edu
Center Description:
The Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University brings philosophical analysis - examining values and clarifying concepts - to the discussion of pressing issues in public policy. Within the School of Public Policy and in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Institute members address moral, legal and societal concerns that arise, for example, with emerging technologies, international development, and global demands for ending injustice.
Philosophers contribute to this discussion by framing and analyzing such
questions as
- When is the decision to go to war justified?
- To what extent should society regulate the choices people make, for their own good?
- What does 'environmental protection' mean beyond a concern with
human health, safety and welfare? - What obligations do we have to future generations?
- What is a fair distribution of limited resources in regard to health
care?
The ways arguments about public policy are structured and the values that underlie them are often as important as the facts on which they are based. The Institute works within the School of Public Policy and with the larger research community at Mason to provide expertise in the philosophical - the normative and conceptual - dimensions of public policy and thus to complement the empirical research that characterizes the natural and social sciences.