Contents: 1. Introduction and rationale 2. Key streams in philosophical inquiry: a selection and succinct overview for the field of public administration - Part I 3. Key streams in philosophical inquiry: a selection and succinct overview for the field of public administration - Part II 4. Public administration doctrines and themes revisited from a philosophical perspective 5. Political philosophy and public governance: the quest for justification in `common good' and in `social contract' arguments and their significance for the debate on the organisation of the public sector 6. Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas More: on virtues, realism, and utopian thinking in public administration 7. The search for consistency Index.