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“Free & Equal: A Journal of Ethics and Public Affairs”

Brian Leiter

UPDATED BELOW, COMMENTS NOW OPEN

The former editor of Philosophy & Public Affairs (which imploded in May) shared the following announcement:

On behalf of the former Editors of Philosophy and Public Affairs, I am pleased to announce the name of our newly founded journal, Free & Equal: A Journal of Ethics and Public Affairs, slated to launch for submissions in September 2024.

I am also excited to announce that I will serve as Free & Equal’s Editor-in-Chief. I look forward with enthusiasm to working once again with my distinguished Co-Editors, and to leading our diamond open-access journal. Hence the masthead of Free & Equal (listed below) is exactly same as the old masthead for Philosophy and Public Affairs prior to our resignation. Please note that no one on this masthead has any further involvement with Philosophy and Public Affairs, which is now entirely run by Wiley. 

The name Free & Equal symbolizes our new journal’s aspiration to be free and equally accessible to all.  Our ongoing mission remains the same: to publish work of the highest caliber that provides philosophical reflections on issues of public concern. I encourage everyone in the philosophy, law, and political theory communities to send us your best work, which we look forward to receiving.

Anna Stilz

Kernan Robson Professor of Political Science

University of California, Berkeley

Free & Equal Editorial Board (below the fold)

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Anna Stilz, University of California, Berkeley

ASSOCIATE EDITORS

Arash Abizadeh, McGill University

Nico Cornell, University of Michigan

Garrett Cullity, Australian National University

Marc Fleurbaey, Paris School of Economics

Johann Frick, University of California, Berkeley

Joe Horton, University College London

Sophia Moreau, New York University Law School

Kristi Olson, Bowdoin College

Jonathan Quong, University of Southern California

Japa Pallikkathayil, University of Pittsburgh

Gina Schouten, Harvard University

Zofia Stemplowska, University of Oxford

Adam Swift, University College London

Patrick Tomlin, University of Warwick

ADVISORY EDITORS

Charles R. Beitz, Princeton University
Joshua Cohen, University of California, Berkeley and Apple

Alan Patten, Princeton University
Arthur Ripstein, University of Toronto
Seana Shiffrin, University of California, Los Angeles
R. Jay Wallace, University of California, Berkeley

EDITORIAL BOARD

Elizabeth Anderson, University of Michigan
Cheshire Calhoun, Arizona State University
David Estlund, Brown University

Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School
Barbara Herman, University of California, Los Angeles
Pamela Hieronymi, University of California, Los Angeles
Frances Myrna Kamm, Rutgers University
Niko Kolodny, University of California, Berkeley
Jeff McMahan, Oxford University
Liam Murphy, New York University

Debra Satz, Stanford University
Samuel Scheffler, New York University
Amartya Sen, Harvard University
Tommie Shelby, Harvard University
Amia Srinivasan, Oxford University
Jeremy Waldron, New York University
Stuart White, Oxford University
Gideon Yaffe, Yale University

UPDATE:  A couple of philosophers on Twitter expressed the concern that the new title, "Free & Equal," implies a particular perspective on moral and political questions.  Philosopher Paul Schofield (Bates) remarked that "the new title seems to me to imply a narrower focus—like the journal Utilitas or something. I doubt this was intentional, but it also seems kind of obvious to me."

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12 responses to ““Free & Equal: A Journal of Ethics and Public Affairs””

  1. Matthew Kramer

    I'm unenthusiastic about the title. For one thing, although Rawls did not originate the phrase "free and equal," it is so heavily associated with him in contemporary political philosophy that the adoption of it as the title of a journal conveys an impression of parochialism. Moreover, the use of a couple of adjectives as the title of a journal strikes me as decidedly peculiar. Finally, the retention of the phrase "public affairs" in the subtitle of the journal is odd. The previous incarnation of the journal at its inception was very heavily focused on the application of general ideas from moral and political philosophy to matters of public affairs, and that focus was never entirely abandoned; nonetheless, it had considerably waned during the past couple of decades. Unless the editorial team are planning to return to that orientation, they would have done well to opt for a different subtitle.

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  2. Anna Stilz

    As I said in my public statement, the name Free & Equal refers to our new journal's aspiration to be free and equally accessible to all, not to the topics or perspectives we will be publishing. We are open to submissions from a wide variety of ideological vantage points and traditions, reflecting the diversity in the political theory and philosophy communities.

    Reply
  3. Assc prof

    Reminds me of my other favorite journals, such as Timely Reviews Quarterly, Footnotes Only Annual, and The Journal of Reasonable Second Referee.

    Reply
  4. V. Alan White

    At the least "Free and Equal" seems quite unnecessary to the journal's title. At worst a Rawlsian bias, and at best an unneeded boast.

    Reply
  5. Dean C. Rowan

    'A couple of philosophers on Twitter expressed the concern that the new title, "Free & Equal," implies a particular perspective on moral and political questions.'

    IANAP, but huh? Let's not get too worked up about implications, which can be rampant. I'll only confess that when I read "free and equal" I think "fair and balanced," the old Fox motto. Hence if I were a marketing consultant I might advise against the new title. But I'm not a marketing consultant, and even if I were, why should anybody care what I think?

    Reply
  6. Asst prof

    It's a terrible name, as has been widely noted, and should probably be rethought. But the most important thing to note is gratitude to the editors for the hard work in creating a new OA journal.

    Reply
  7. LFC

    I don't think there's anything especially wrong with the title. First, it's refreshingly different from most journal titles. Second, even if it's taken (as not intended by the editors) to signal something substantive, I don't think it signals much, despite what some say re Rawlsian overtones.

    Reply
  8. Sad About this Decision

    Whatever the intent behind the title, it seems to strike almost everyone who hears it as declaring special concern with, or even perhaps fidelity to, a certain set of traditions and ideas in political philosophy (it even strikes a few people I've talked to as declaring adherence to a certain set of partisan political positions). I am frankly very surprised that the board of the journal, a group of people that seems to me generally to have very good judgment, has chosen to approve such a poorly conceived idea.

    This will, I think, genuinely make the journal less influential and credible. As one example, I suspect you will see many fewer submissions from those working at the intersection of philosophy and other disciplines, such as law, where it is important that a journal's title be legible and credible to scholars who don't know a ton of philosophy world inside baseball. Those of us with tenure may be willing to take the hit, but junior scholars, and those who are keen to have their work read widely by scholars in disciplines outside of philosophy, will not.

    This is a regrettable decision, in my view and according to everyone to whom I have spoken about it. I hope there is still a window of opportunity to reconsider it.

    Reply
  9. Very confused

    I think it is a great name

    Reply
  10. Chris Lewis

    Why not take a page out of Bob Goodin et al’s playbook? They went from “Journal of Political Philosophy” to just “Political Philosophy.” You could go from “Philosophy and Public Affairs” to “Journal of Philosophy and Public Affairs,” or “Public Affairs and Philosophy.” Something like that better retains the name recognition you’ve built up, avoids the issues with the (in my view weird) title you’ve chosen for now, and also is more of a slap in the face to Wiley—which apparently they deserve.

    Reply
  11. Laurence Schaumberg

    It's been a while now since the name change, and with only a few exceptions here and there, nearly everyone is in agreement that the new title is problematic . And there are quite a few reasons given for why it's problematic and at best disliked, NONE of which would apply to a simple title like The Journal of Philosophy and Public Affairs, or Public Affairs and Philosophy, which retains the name recognition of the original journal without giving the impression that the journal differs from its pervious iteration by being on a substantively narrow topic. The editor who I think was very very well intended with the new name, has defended what the name is supposed to signal, basically saying that the criticisms are off the mark. The problem remains, and shouldn't be ignored, that it very clearly has not gone down well. By now, the jury is in, and that's the result. What I want to suggest is that it's still early enough in the journal's reincarnation post-Wiley to fix this and just give it a name that avoids the zillions of objections to the current name (Journal of Philosophy and Public Affairs). The longer you go on with the Free and Equal business, the more brand damage will be done, and the harder it will be to fix the problem. It's really not too late; just take the near universal feedback on board and move forward in a positive direction and the journal will be a big success!

    Reply
  12. Cecilea Mun

    The editors have indicated that these concerns are misplaced, but I’m wondering if the commenters are thinking about the potential bias that their publications in the journal might receive from tenure reviewers rather than a concern with the journal’s perspective. This comment is in line with the concern for junior scholars that someone posted above, but addresses the concern from a slightly different view.

    Based on my experience with reviews of various kinds of works (papers and grants) it seems like there is a push to heed conservative as well as progressive and liberal perspectives. So, perhaps the concerns expressed might be a fear that a tenure reviewer might, perhaps implicitly, weigh publications in Free and Equal less because the reviewer has a certain biased position.

    So, although “Free and Equal” might be great for the title when considered simply as a title, it might be worth considering a change when the title is reflected as a part of the various ways in which an author, review committee, hiring committee, etc., might use the journal title.

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