Ideals and Reality in Social Ethics

A major international conference, the first in an annual series on this theme, featuring 80 papers by participants from 17 countries. Papers will address issues ranging from sustainability to standards of parenting, from the selling of kidneys for transplant to the relationship between idealism and realism in political theory, and from high pay commissions to the value of professional codes of ethics.

Conference Agenda

Those who theorise about social values (freedom, equality, justice) like to think their insights have public application and resonance.  Meanwhile policymakers and practitioners spend little time reading ethical theory. Are these bad habits?  Is either side at fault?  Should we prioritise ideal values, or theoretical models, over the messy, impure reality of the social, political, economic and professional contexts in which decisions are put into practice?  Is it possible to combine due attention to both? If so, how should this be done?  Is it possible, or desirable, to combine the nuanced language of theory with the differently complex imperatives of practice?

Panels, in alphabetical order (see programme for full details of timings, participants and paper titles)

• Barriers to Convergence in Current Thinking and Political-Economic Forms
• Basic Income as an Idea and Social Reality
• Codes and Practices in Professional Ethics (1)
• Codes and Practices in Professional Ethics (2)
• Construction and Performance of Political Theories
• Convergence as a Social Sustainability Ethic
• Democracy
• Education
• The Environment
• Equality and Policy
• The Ethics of Organ Donation
• EU Citizenship: Political Ideals vs. Practice
• The Good Parent: Ideals and Reality in Contemporary Parenthood (1)
• The Good Parent: Ideals and Reality in Contemporary Parenthood (2)
• Idealism and Realism in the Theory and Practice of Politics
• Language and Dialogue
• Political Concepts and Social Practice
• The Practice of Normative Theory
• Pragmatic Imagination: Overcoming the Divide between Moralism and Realism
• Rights, Duties and Identity
• The Values of the Social Professions
• War and Terrorism
• What is Ideal Theory?
• What is Non-Ideal Theory?
• Writing About Politics: Sketches and Variations

A number of subsidised places will be available for postgraduate students and those without institutional financial support.