Philosophy conference in Passau: New ideas for ecology and democracy!

Philosophy conference in Passau: New ideas for ecology and democracy!

The XII. Conference for Practical Philosophy took place on September 25th and 26th, 2025 at the University of Passau. Around 250 participants discussed central topics such as ecology, democracy and artificial intelligence as well as the development of philosophy from Plato to Rawls. The event, organized by Prof. Dr. Karoline Reinhardt, junior professor of applied ethics, was one of the largest annual philosophy conferences in German-speaking countries.

A total of around 200 lectures were presented, which significantly expanded the program compared to the previous year. Particular attention was paid to two plenary lectures. Prof. Dr. Stefan Gosepath dealt with the fairness of heredity, while Prof. Dr. Franziska Dübgen discussed methodological approaches to migration ethics.

Panels and variety of topics

What was particularly notable was that specialist societies such as the Kant Society were represented with their own panels for the first time. These covered a wide range of topics, including participatory research, democratic theory and the challenges of health and medicine. Another program item dealt with educational philosophy and didactics, which was of particular interest to teachers.

The conference was not only organized by the University of Passau, but also held in collaboration with the TU Berlin and the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing. The commitment of these institutions underlines the importance and relevance of the topics addressed in practical philosophy.

Outlook for upcoming events

The successful conference in Passau contributes to the dynamic development of philosophical discussion in Germany. Several interesting events are already planned for the future. An international conference on interculturality will take place in Wuppertal in April 2026. In addition, a conference on the topic of “Teachers and Students in Antiquity” will take place in Heidelberg in November 2025. The call for abstracts for these events is already underway.

In addition, the “PhilosophyArena” conference is open to schoolchildren and deals with the topic of “The Good Life”. The best ideas will be honored in a competition in three age categories. The submission deadline for this ends on October 12, 2025.

This year's conference of practical philosophy once again showed how important and relevant philosophical discussions are in order to reflect on social challenges and develop solutions. These and upcoming events are sure to generate further interest and participation.

Further information about the events can be found on the website German Society for Philosophy to find as well as on Philosophydidactics.com.

How uni-passau.de reported, the topics discussed during the event were of great interdisciplinary importance and of broad social interest.