Introduction to the Volume

This volume consists of selected proceedings from the 21st Annual Australian Association of Professional and Applied Philosophy (AAPAE) conference. The conference was hosted at the University of Notre Dame Australia’s Broadway Campus, New South Wales, by the Centre for Faith, Ethics & Society (which has now been renamed as the Institute for Ethics & Society), 22–24 June 2014. It was the second consecutive year that the University of Notre Dame Australia has hosted the AAPAE Conference, the previous conference having been held in Fremantle, Western Australia.

The conference theme, ‘Conscience, Leadership, and the Problem of Dirty Hands’, was addressed from a range of perspectives during the conference. Conscience and the broad moral decision-making processes of individuals was an underlying theme in each of the discussions that took place, with discussions being divided between those of a professional nature, and those with political significance. These discussions are were unified in their focus on apparent moral dilemmas arising from professional or political commitments to apparently conflicting moral demands, leading to an exciting and enlightening treatment of the topic.