Public Ethics

Public ethics is the study of the different approaches (theoretical and methodological) to the justification of public choices and choices of collective relevance on fundamental issues of common life. Our lives as citizens evolve in a public space, governed by public policies and institutional choices, which guide and condition it. In order to trace answers to major political and public issues, we are sometimes consulted, sometimes our representatives decide instead of us, but in one case as in the other the possibility of tracing acceptable answers depends on the possibility of tracing answers that are not subjective or ideological. Studying the methods and principles that allow a fair participation in the discussion of the goods and resources of coexistence means reasoning in terms of public ethics. The learning objectives of teaching is to develop knowledge and skills to find criteria to justify or critically assess the legitimacy of political and public decisions, institutions and practices, in terms that are also recognisable from the point of view of dialogue and communication. Public ethics can thus be configured as well as a repertoire of languages that can be shared by individuals who remain partially - morally - alien to each other, and among which convergences, divergences, incompatibilities and disagreements can occur. Conceived in this sense, public ethics is the discipline that defines the criteria for public discussion on the reasons for preferring one rule or another, on principles that can be used in policies, legislation and institutions.

knowledge and understanding of the main theoretical/methodological paradigms of public ethics and cases studied in class;
- ability to apply the knowledge and understanding acquired to the analysis and discussion of disputes at the heart of public debate, not only related to cases studied in class, but also to broader and more diverse dilemmatic contexts;
- critical judgment and evaluation skills, both of the theoretical perspectives addressed, and of the regulatory and practical contexts encountered and examined;
- the ability to make judgments and defend arguments associated with communication skills appropriate to make reasoning explicit and understandable in front of interlocutors, specialists and non-specialists.