• What makes a government legitimate? • What rights and freedoms should it protect? • What is a just society? • Are companies free to cooperate with firms that engage in child labour? • What are the normative foundations of rights? • What justifies punishment? • Are there any convincing arguments in favour of the death penalty? • What exactly is an argument? • Can waging war be morally permitted or even required? • What, if anything, do we owe to the world's poor and why? • How can we understand collective action and social choice? • What speaks in favour of democracy? • Why not have anarchy? • Will politicians necessarily dirty their hands? • Can violence against innocents ever be justified? • What does climate justice require? • Is there a right to immigration? • What does citizenship mean? • What are the criteria for fair trade? • What justifies capitalism? • Is there a human right to paid labour? • What is practical philosophy and how does it help to answer these questions?

Citizens of modern societies are faced with a vast variety of questions concerning the relationship between politics, economics, morality and law. The Master program in Political and Economic Philosophy (PEP) at the philosophical department of Bern University aims to provide a context in which students from different countries can address these questions systematically.

The interdisciplinary degree is designed to allow students to study the ethical dimensions of public policy, corporate and non-governmental action in fields as diverse as health policy, employment relations, the environment, and international relations. It aims at providing a structured introduction to appropriate methods of the disciplines of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and, more particularly, to ethical reasoning, policy-making, and implementation.

The Master in Political and Economic Philosophy is meant to be of interest to students from a variety of backgrounds, including Philosophy, the Social Sciences, Law, and Economics. The students will pursue their own research project and will be supervised individually during the whole time of their PEP studies.

The program includes a variety of different courses and instructional formats designed to help students to develop and apply divergent skills that will be useful for a whole range of future careers and professional activities.

For any questions please contact: Prof. Dr. Susanne Boshammer