• Project Co-ordinator: Dr. phil. Georg Kamp, M.A.

Each process of Technology Assessment that helps to prepare political decisions with contributions from the scientific point of view depends on some normative premises: the supposed standards of rationality, the criteria of adequacy for the reconstructive shaping of decision scenarios and, last but not least, general principles of action that would be chosen by rational actors according to one set of standards or the other. Such standards, criteria and principles have always been a subject of philosophy, especially in disciplines such as the theory of argumentation (logic), the philosophy of science, and ethics. The study group “Practical Philosophy” critically discusses these traditions as relevant contemporary philosophical debates and incorporates its results in the work of the Europäische Akademie and its project groups. The study group began its work in February 2000.