Wicked problems and fictional narratives

This paper adopts wicked problems (WPs) as an organising tool for political philosophy (PP) and suggests fictional narratives (FNs) as a method for tackling them. First, we define wicked problems and adopt a particular interpretation of them. Next, WPs as an organising tool for PP is justified. We argue that some projects of PP should acknowledge the limits of justice and theorise situated wickedness. This means recognising when political problems cannot be answered by a conclusive normative idea of justice. Rather, the task becomes distinguishing between minor injustices and major injustices and theorising when the latter is being caused in order to prevent the former. Second, we describe FNs and why they are a suitable method for wicked political philosophy problems (WPPPs). I) They offer multiple, situated perspectives of a minor and major injustice. (II) They foster a normative idea of justice that encourages us to ‘pick a side’ whilst exploring and empathising with the side we did not choose. III) They promote PP to be of practical use to the realities of policymaking.