Public Health Virtue Ethics: Institutions, Structures, and Political Virtue for the Good Society

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Kathryn L. MacKay (The University of Sydney, Australia)

Public Health Virtue Ethics

Institutions, Structures, and Political Virtue for the Good Society

Kathryn L. MacKay (The University of Sydney, Australia)

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Hardback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
28 October 2025

Ethics & moral philosophy; Medical ethics & professional conduct; Public health & preventive medicine; Bio-ethics

Series: Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory

This book argues that virtue ethics should be incorporated into public health ethics. It provides the theoretical foundations for a virtue ethics that is applicable to public health, as well as political institutions more broadly.

Ethical analyses of public health policies and practices have been mostly conducted in terms of examining the best consequences or weighing outcomes against liberty, autonomy, justice, and harm. While these debates are important, analyses conducted only in these terms leave a huge range of moral issues under-examined. This book contends that a virtue ethics developed for political institutions such as public health provides the tools for a more robust moral analysis of institutional structures, actions, and responsibilities. First, it presents theoretical arguments for political virtues, explaining how institutions like public health have moral agency and how these institutional agents can, in turn, have (or lack) virtues. It then presents three political virtues that are particularly relevant to public health: justice, civic friendship, and epistemic humility. Each of these virtues is important to what it means for public health to do its work excellently, and each sheds light upon the moral justifiability of past or current public health practice.

Public Health Virtue Ethics will appeal to researchers and graduate students working in virtue ethics, bioethics, and public health ethics.

By: Kathryn L. MacKay (The University of Sydney Australia)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 450g
ISBN: 9781041111641
ISBN 10: 1041111649
Series: Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory
Pages: 150
Publication Date: 28 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Kathryn L. MacKay is Senior Lecturer in Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics, University of Sydney. Her work focuses on applied philosophy, feminist philosophy, and virtue ethics.