CFP: Symposium Moral Philosophy & Politics 2015/02: Discrimination: What is it? When is it wrong? What should we do about it?

Call for Papers: “Discrimination: What is it? When is it wrong? What should we do about it?”, Symposium Moral Philosophy & Politics 2015/02, guest-edited by Kaspar Lippert Rasmussen

The journal Moral Philosophy & Politics hereby invites contributions to a symposium on discrimination. Discrimination obviously has received a lot of political attention. Yet, so far philosophers have not seriously tackled the many philosophical issues that discrimination raises.

Contributors are asked to address one or more of three general questions: 1) What is discrimination in the sense that people who complain about discrimination have in mind? Clearly, discrimination has something to do with differential treatment, but not all forms of differential treatment constitute discrimination in this sense. 2) What makes discrimination unjust or morally wrong when it is? There are many different possible accounts, for instance, that discrimination violates the (human) rights of the discriminatee, that it is disrespectful, undermines equality of opportunity, or that it is harmful to its victims. 3) What ought we to do in face of discrimination? For instance, should the state seek to eliminate all forms of discrimination, including discrimination in people’s private lives, and is affirmative action a morally right way of eliminating the differential effects of discrimination?

Contributions could address either of these questions in a more specific form, e.g., what makes indirect discrimination unjust. Papers should be submitted before October 31th, 2014, and should not exceed 8000 words in total. The journal's manuscript submission site can be found under: