How We Blame: A Theory of Moral Responsibility (Routledge 2025)
Congratulations to our Colleague Dr. Bana Bashour on the publication of her book "How We Blame: A Theory of Moral Responsibility" (Routledge 2025)!
https://www.routledge.com/How-We-Blame-A-Theory-of-Moral-Responsibility/Bashour/p/book/9781032522647?srsltid=AfmBOoqX3sLmBvKYs0kFIqJo4oAudsgvE-8Yxh3n86fUug_NJU3hGRSW
This book presents a naturalistic account of moral responsibility that is neutral on the metaphysics of free will. It engages with empirical literature in experimental philosophy and psychology and draws on real-life case studies to illuminate the author’s theory of moral responsibility.
The author argues that agency requires an understanding of moral responsibility attributions, which requires that one understands one’s intentional states and those of others. Further, she argues that a justified attribution of moral responsibility involves justified attributions of intentional states and justified perceptions of norm violations. This claim is novel because when moral responsibility is indexed to a particular onlooker, the discussion becomes one about whether a blamer is justified in attributing moral responsibility to the blamed. Another distinctive feature of the author’s account is that it makes room for cultural variability in our justifications of moral responsibility; those in different cultures may have different norms or expectations of one another. The first part of the book argues for a theoretical account of agency and moral responsibility while making distinctions between those and one’s theory of punishment. While justified attributions are interpersonal, theories of punishment are institutional and societal in nature. The second part of the book goes into the literature from empirical psychology and experimental philosophy on the nature of moral responsibility.
How We Blame will appeal to philosophers and psychologists interested in the issue of moral responsibility.
Thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion: Is it ethical?
Congratulations to Caner Turan on the publication of his new article "Thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion: is it ethical?" in Monash Bioethics Review (2025)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40592-025-00229-2
Thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion (TA-NRP), a new method of controlled donation after circulatory death, seems to provide more and better organs for patients on organ transplant waiting lists compared to standard controlled donation after circulatory death. Despite its benefits, the ethical permissibility of TA-NRP is currently a highly debated issue. The recent statement published by the American College of Physicians (ACP) highlights the reasons for these debates. Critics’ main concern is that TA-NRP violates the Dead Donor Rule. This paper presents an ethical analysis of the objections raised by the ACP against TA-NRP and argues that TA-NRP is not only morally permissible but also morally required where it is financially and technically feasible. To support this conclusion, the concepts of ‘resuscitation,’ ‘intention,’ ‘irreversibility,’ ‘permanence,’ ‘impossibility,’ and ‘respect’ in the context of TA-NRP are explored. Additionally, the ethical permissibility of this procedure is evaluated through the lenses of Utilitarianism, Kantianism, the core principles of bioethics, and the Doctrine of Double Effect. This ethical analysis demonstrates why the ACP’s objection lacks a solid moral foundation and conflates moral and legal considerations. This paper also argues that extra measures are needed to ensure the moral permissibility of TA-NRP, emphasizing the importance of informed consent, additional brain blood flow and activity monitoring, and a contingency plan to abort the organ procurement process if a sign of morally relevant brain activity is detected.
Leibniz and the Religion of the Mohammadans
Congratulations to Christopher Johns on the publication of his new article "Leibniz's and the Religion of the Mohammadans" in Religions 15 (2024)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/15/9/1087
Throughout his correspondence and writings, Leibniz made a number of passing references to the religion of the Mohammadans (Islam) and to several Islamic commentators. Recent literature on these references has placed them in the context of Leibniz’s political and historical interests that largely reflect his Eurocentric prejudices. The purpose of this paper is to extract a more detailed and systematic view of Leibniz’s knowledge of and interest in the religion, through Leibniz’s remarks on Islam in relation to Christian doctrines such as the Trinity and the Incarnation, through the commentary of Maimonides and the Christian Averroists, and through a (partly speculative) comparison of three types of theodicy. The paper concludes that while Leibniz knew very little about Islam’s actual doctrines, and that he was subject to the prejudicial views of his time, he understood Islam, as he did Christianity, as largely in conformity with natural (rational) religion. At the same time, his interest in its specific doctrines was primarily instrumental, that is, as correctives to certain abusive practices and misunderstandings persisting within Christianity, which could then explain for him why Islam prevailed in the East.
Leibniz's Discourse of Metaphysics
Congratulations to Christopher Johns on the publication of his new book Leibniz's Discourse of Metaphysics. A New Translation and Commentary, Edinburgh University Press (2023).
A fresh translation and in-depth commentary of Leibniz's seminal text. Written in 1686, Discourse on Metaphysics is one of the most important and widely published works in the history of philosophy. This translation and commentary by Christopher Johns has much new to offer. Based on the Akademie edition this is the first truly scholarly translation. Also included is historical and philosophical context, detailing Leibniz's activities during 1685 and 1686 and in several letters previously unpublished in English. These letters and texts illuminate important themes found in the Discourse and shed light on the intellectual context of the time and will be of particular interest to scholars and teachers of Leibniz.
Philosophy, Sciences and Theology in the Islamicate World of the Ninth Century
Congratulations to Emma Gannagé for the publication of Philosophy, Sciences and Theologyin the Islamicate World of the Ninth Century (Mélanges de l'Université Saint-Joseph 69 [2021-22] published 2023),which she edited with the collaboration of Pauline Koetschet (CNRS, Aix-Marseille) and Elvira Wakelnig (University of Vienna).
The articles gathered in these proceedings stem from an international conference co-organized by the three of them and held in Beirut on October 21-22, 2019.The conference was jointly supported by the Farouk Jabre Centre for Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy at the American University of Beirut and the joint project “Galen in Arabic (GAIA) –More than a Translation," with the participation of the Department of Philosophy at AUB and the Institut francais du Proche-Orient (IFPO).