Dortmund Philosophical Disputes on Economic Justice

Dortmund Disputes on Economic Justice

Date: June 12 and 13, 2025.

Place: Dortmund, Germany

Keynotes: Miranda Fleischer (San Diego), Nicholas Vrousalis (Rotterdam)

Organizers: Peter Königs, Christian Neuhäuser, Lea Prix, Dick Timmer (TU Dortmund University)

Most fundamental questions of economic justice remain unresolved. There is little agreement on the place of markets, the nature of property, the justifiability of taxes, the importance of workplace democracy, the injustice of economic inequality, and, generally, the merits of capitalism and socialism.

While debates on economic justice often take place within specific political camps, where many assumptions are shared, the Dortmund Disputes take a different approach. The idea of the Dortmund Disputes is to foster debate across political boundaries. It seeks to bring together open-minded scholars with diverse political outlooks—whether liberal egalitarian, libertarian, socialist, conservative, or otherwise—who are committed to our shared goal of advancing our understanding of economic justice.

The keynote speakers for the first installment of the Dortmund Disputes are Miranda Fleischer and Nicholas Vrousalis. Miranda Fleischer is Richard and Kaye Woltman Professor in Finance at University of San Diego’s School of Law. Her work focuses on ethical and legal issues surrounding taxation, wealth and wealth transfer, and charitable giving. She’s the co-author of a recent book on Universal Basic Income. Nicholas Vrousalis is Associate Professor in Practical Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam. His work revolves around distributive ethics, democratic theory, and the history of political philosophy, with emphasis on Kant, Hegel, and Marx. He is the author of a recent book on capitalism and exploitation.

We invite scholars to apply with an abstract of around 500 words. Abstracts will be selected based on their quality, fit with the spirit of the conference, and broad alignment with the research interests of the keynote speakers. They should be sent as PDF attachments to Swaantje Siebke [[email protected]], prepared for blind review. The deadline for submission is January 10, 2025.

Limited funding is available to cover travel and accommodation expenses for speakers who cannot otherwise finance these costs.