Research Interests at the Professorship in Politcal Philosophy and Theory

We are interested in conceptual and normative questions about justice and democracy and how they can be realized in today's world. While also drawing on the history of ideas, our approach is mostly a systematic one that takes into account empirical insights from the social and political sciences. We draw on German, French, and Anglophone traditions of thought and try to combine their strengths. Our aim is to understand how normative principles can be applied to social problems and challenges, which allows us to both deepen our understanding of these principles and to develop proposals for reform. Here is an incomplete (!) list of themes we currently work on: ethics in organizations and the "moral division of labour" between individuals, organizations, and the state; justice in the labor market; workplace democracy; market socialism; the just distribution of risks;challenges for democracy deriving from complexity; theories of political normativity; the relationship of democracy and expert knowledge; theories of political treason; theories of democratic movements.