Philosophy And Public Issues: A Journal of Moral, Political, Legal and Social Philosophy
Special Symposium: A Changing Moral Climate, with a discussion of Stephen Gardiner’s A Perfect Moral Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate Change
Guest Editor: Marcello Di Paola

Invited Contributors:

• Simon Caney (University of Oxford)
• Dale W. Jamieson (New York University)
• Christopher Preston (University of Montana)
• Ronald Sandler (Northwestern University)
• Stephen M. Gardiner (University of Washington).

Aims and Background:  Most contemporary philosophers recognize the unprecedented challenges that the phenomenon of climate change poses to our moral intuitions, our moral and political systems, our motivational springs, and our economic and legal paradigms.  Some have attempted to provide comprehensive diagnoses of these challenges and to suggest conceptual angles from which to approach them.  Most of the work produced by philosophers on various aspects of climate change (e.g. personal and institutional responsibility, justice, the claims of future generations, the fate of non-human nature, worst case scenario’s, possible responses, the proper role of science) have been as stimulating as they have proven controversial.  There is a growing and rich discussion on the topic, which this special volume of Philosophy and Public Issues wants to capture and disclose.  We encourage submissions of original papers that philosophically explore aspects of the topic of climate change from a moral, political, or legal perspective.  We expect original contributions discussing problems such as (but not limited to): 

• the appropriate conceptualization of the problem;
• the solidity of our considered moral intuitions in the face of it, and the applicability of our mainstream moral theories;
• individual and institutional obligations;
• the obstacles it poses to our moral psychology, and how (if) these can be overcome;
• the relationship between science and policy;
• the status of climate change as a problem of global justice;
• the status of democracy as an asset or a liability when responding to it;
• the prospects for a market-based treatment of the problem;
• the role, feasibility, and admissibility of new technologies and policies such as geo-engineering and population control; 
• … or any other relevant topic, subject to the Editors’ approval.

This special issue will include a discussion of Stephen Gardiner’s A Perfect Moral Storm: the Ethical tragedy of Climate Change (OUP 2012), with commentaries by Simon Caney, Marcello Di Paola, Dale Jamieson, Gianfranco Pellegrino, Christopher Preston, and Ronal Sandler, followed by . Stephen Gardiner’s replies.

Submission Details:  Please send a (.rtf, .doc or .docx) file containing a long abstract (1,000 words max) and a title, prepared for blind review with all revealing references to the author removed.  All personal information (name, affiliation, and contact) must be submitted separately, along with a short abstract (200 words max).  Deadline for abstract submission is September 15, 2012.  Decisions will be made within a month.

Upon notification of acceptance, you will be invited to submit the full paper (10,000 words max) no later than January 15, 2012.  The volume will be published in April 2013. Contributions that do not make it to the volume may be considered for subsequent publication in one of the regular volumes of Philosophy and Public Issues.  All material should be submitted to submissionppi@luiss.it.

Further Inquiries: Please direct any queries about this call for papers to Marcello Di Paola at marcellodipaola80@gmail.com  or PPI’s Editors at editorppi@luiss.it.