The perspective on Isa al-Masih or Jesus has been one point of separation and a source of endless tension between Islam and Christianity. While Western tradition believes that Isa al-Masih is the son of God, Islam ensures that Isa is the son of a human being, a servant of God or a prophet and a messenger of God. This paper is not intended to resolve this debate, but through a thematic study by examining verses that reveal about Isa al-Masih in (...) any verses in the Qur’an, wants to show that despite theological differences in the views of Isa al-Masih between Islam and Christianity cannot be avoided. However the meeting points between Islam and Christianity is very strong and that is in the Qur’an called Kalimatun sawa’ which makes both emphasize peace rather than conflict. Isa al-Masih is seen by Christians and Muslims as a respected figure and has a prophetic mision of freeing the weak and oppressed people. Therefore, in Islamic tradition, Isa al-Masih is considered as the apostle of ulul azmi or the liberator Prophet. (shrink)

This article examines the theological polemics between Islam and Christianity focusing on the prophetic attribution of Isa al-Masih in Islamic tradition. It takes a close look at the Qur’anic construction upon the Prophet Isa al-Masih as a human being who served as a messenger of God, while briefly comparing the Islamic construction to the Christian tradition projecting Isa-al-Masih as the son of God. Rather than emphasising differences between the two traditions, this article, through the Quranic concept kalimatun sawa’, sheds a (...) new light on a shared belief between Islam and Christian traditions. Both Islam and Christianity believe that Isa al-Masih is the saviour for humanity, the liberator for the weak and the oppressed. The Qur’an maintains Isa al-Masih as one of the ulul azmi meaning that the prophets who successfully liberated his people. (shrink)

The term takyīf fiqhī stands for one crucial concept in Islamic jurisprudence and refers to one of the important steps in the process of formulating fatwā. It basically revolves around the categorization of particular issues under the appropriate rules and precedents established in Islamic juristic thought. The present article attempts to examine the concept of takyīf fiqhī in a comprehensive manner in terms of its meaning, authority, types, importance, and governing criteria as can be gleaned from the works of Sharī‘ah (...) scholars. This is then followed by an exploration of its application to modern contracts, taking as a case study the Central Provident Fund Nomination in Singapore. The article concludes with the view that the Central Provident Fund Nomination, in terms of its essential characteristics and objective, resembles the Islamic will contract as discussed in books of Islamic Jurisprudence. (shrink)

The aim was to investigate and assess the acceptance of virtual classes among Arabic language student teachers during and beyond covid-19. Quantitative research is carried out with the aim to assess the acceptance of virtual classes among Arabic language student teachers during and beyond covid-19. It uses a survey-based methodology to obtain data from the respondents. An online questionnaire was used to collect data via Facebook and WhatsApp groups. 450 questionnaire responses were received. They were 300 males, and 150 females. (...) Results indicated that the student behavioral intention to use educational technology is positively affected by perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use. PU, PEOU yielded a coefficient of multiple regression of 0. 450 and a multiple correlation square of 0. 435. This shows that 43.5% of the total variance in student behavioral intention to use educational technology is accounted for by the combination of PU, PEOU. Efforts to integrate educational technology into teacher education and Arabic language student teachers education programs are necessary. (shrink)

Education for sustainable development aims to develop students' awareness of sustainability issues and foster their attitudes towards environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The study aimed to identify the role of Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University in promoting environmental sustainability among its students, in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030. A descriptive analytical approach was used, with a sample of 341 university students. The study found that faculty members ranked first in promoting sustainability, followed by curricula, student activities, and university administration. (...) The most important ways to activate the university's role in promoting sustainability from students' perspectives were rated as very important. Statistically significant differences were found between the sample's responses, with females expressing more support in university administration. Academic specialization also influenced responses, with scientific specializations showing more favor in university administration, faculty members, and curricula. The researchers made several recommendations based on the findings. (shrink)

The Quran combines both argumentative and rational expressions to convince people to believe in Islamic principles; however, the controversy lies between the Believers and hypocrites. This study discussed the mechanisms of the Quranic Argumentation by adopting the stylistic method to address the hypocrites, citing verses from the Surah Al-Tawbah. The study tracked the mechanisms of evidences spread throughout the chapter and employed the Quranic text to elaborate the meaning in particular and general contexts. The study also highlighted the tools of (...) the linguistic arguments with their different forms, to show their effect in addressing the hypocrites and reveal the characteristics of the Quranic method as well as its suitability to the linguistic and historical context. The study revealed that the Quranic text focused much on employing the argumentative discourse using visible and hidden tools which are consistent with the meaning and the group it addresses. The most prominent group, it was argued, was the group of hypocrites, who fought bitterly with the truth. However, the truth overcame it and made hypocrites fall apart. It is hoped that the discussion and the tools of argumentation revealed in this study would convince the opponents and critics and motivate them to accept their meanings and evidences. (shrink)

Zakat is mandatory contribution in Islam. It is the command (Pherman) of Allah revealed in holy interaction/discourse of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) with Allah. Islam stands for social and economic solidarity among the followers of Islam. It seeks to provide the basic needs of the individual out of the Zakat contribution pool. For this study, the aim is to discuss the noble and holy idea of employing zakat funds. The employment of Zakat funds are permissible in certain forms and prohibited in (...) some. This distinction is made from the perspective of Islamic jurisprudence. The study proceeded with this aim and reached the following results: (i) the employment of zakat funds is undoubtedly meant for helping the poor, disabled, destitute, and sick or orphaned individuals. (ii) Zakat has five forms in which Zakat funds are deployed/dispensed; (iii) Zakat funds take the form of investment; (iv) Zakat funds are meant to be spent in public interests; (v) Zakat funds are converted into endowments. The forms of spending (iii) and (v) are prohibited by some jurists. They contend that the permissible forms of fund-employment are: (a) providing a vocational tool (felicitation giving equipment such as tools, instruments or other things) to the needy; (b) establishing projects that benefit the poor as a privileged group/class. The study makes recommendation that Zakat controlling institutions should take care of employment of Zakat resources-pool/reservoir in providing jobs to the unemployed poor and others eligible as per Islamic philosophy and the provision of vocational tools, instruments or equipment so that the eligible poor skilled individuals are able to work more efficiently to earn their livelihood. (shrink)

In the past few decades, a lot of optimization methods have been applied in estimating the parameter of photovoltaic models and obtained better results, but these methods still have some deficiencies, such as higher time complexity and poor stability. To tackle these problems, an enhanced success history adaptive DE with greedy mutation strategy is employed to optimize parameters of PV models to propose a parameter optimization method in this paper. In the EBLSHADE, the linear population size reduction strategy is used (...) to gradually reduce population to improve the search capabilities and balance the exploitation and exploration capabilities. The less and more greedy mutation strategy is used to enhance the exploitation capability and the exploration capability. Finally, a parameter optimization method based on EBLSHADE is proposed to optimize parameters of PV models. The different PV models are selected to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method. Comparison results demonstrate that the EBLSHADE is an effective and efficient method and the parameter optimization method is beneficial to design, control, and optimize the PV systems. (shrink)

Hainan, is the only free trade port that also exudes quintessence of the culture of China. Tourism is one of Hainan's most lucrative industries. On the one hand, the regional economy is flourishing and on the other hand, the economy is facing unprecedented impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the affected global market environment, this study investigates Hainan residents' acceptance intentions, or tolerance, of tourists. Here, based on the theory of reasoned action, which includes “subjective norm” combined with (...) “trust,” “perceived risk,” and “perceived value.” Using “resident attitude” as a mediator, theoretical research frameworks were developed. A total of 447 valid responses were collected using online and paper-copy questionnaires distributed to Hainan residents from 15 July 2021 to 10 November 2021. The data from the questionnaires were used for three analyses namely, descriptive statistical analysis, measurement model verification, and structural equation modeling analysis. Findings show a positive effect of trust on residents' attitudes in Hainan; perceived value and subjective norm showed a positive effect on resident acceptance intentions for tourism; the perceived risk of residents showed a more negative effect on attitudes toward tourists, but the influence was small. Finally, through the results of the study, theoretical and practical implications in a post-pandemic era are discussed. (shrink)

Hospital administrators play an essential role in the implementation of Antibiotic Stewardship Programs, which is instrumental in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. The foundation and sustenance of such programs has been made possible through leadership; this is through interdisciplinary collaboration that is done with policy formulation and stewardship inclusion into the institutional systems. Indeed, it is immense strength where ID physicians and clinical pharmacists with special training proactively involve themselves in the program. Beyond that, the accreditation standards that incorporate ASPs (...) really enhance compliance and institutional commitment. Obstacles to movement include an absence of resources, unwilling prescriber, and other competing health conditions for priority. To achieve such success, the hospital administrators must ensure adequate staffing, proper utilization of advanced technologies, and instillation of accountability through focused education and participation. Besides the reduction of resistance, ASPs contribute to such improvements in patient outcomes, efficient consumption of resources, and significant reductions in costs. As this narrative review indicates, leadership at the hospital level plays an important role in augmenting antibiotic stewardship. Addressing major barriers, along with strategic implementation, means that administrators may play an important role in further maximizing effectiveness while truly adding to the world-wide effort against antimicrobial resistance. (shrink)

The importance of this topic is manifested in its highlighting a facet of grammatical opinions in Arabic grammar that some grammarians uniquely held. It also showcases the critical personality that these grammarians possessed, which enabled them to present new views, even if they contradicted the grammatical school to which they belonged. An example of this is Al-Zamakhshari, whose grammatical opinions were recognized by Al-Alawi for their quality and precision, making them worthy of support. This led Al-Alawi to agree with Al-Zamakhshari, (...) even if those opinions contradicted what many grammarians stated. Al-Alawi provided evidence that reinforced these opinions and opposed those who disagreed with them—by weakening or disapproving of them—and justified their incorrectness or deviation from the truth. Therefore, studying this topic in the context of Imam Al-Alawi highlights a part of the Yemeni grammatical heritage and the contribution of Yemeni grammarians to the maturation of Arabic grammar, as the opinions presented by Al-Alawi in agreement with Al-Zamakhshari and his rebuttals to other grammarians represent a rich intellectual resource and a scientific tributary for Arabic grammar. The research on this topic began with an introduction, followed by a prelude, then issues of agreement between Al-Alawi and Al-Zamakhshari, concluding with a conclusion. The introduction included a definition of the topic, its importance, how it is divided, and the methodology used in its study. The prelude addressed the definitions of Imam Al-Alawi and Al-Zamakhshari, as well as the book "Al-Azhar Al-Safiya." Following that were the issues in which Al-Alawi agreed with Al-Zamakhshari, totaling sixteen issues. The methodology used in studying all these issues was a descriptive approach based on tracing the phenomenon in its contexts, gathering, describing, arranging, discussing, and assigning a suitable title to each issue. The conclusion included the most significant findings revealed by the research, among which are: Al-Alawi agreed with Al-Zamakhshari on sixteen points, and he expressed approval for his viewpoint on those points, characterizing it as the most probable, the best, the excellent, the correct, or the most in line with Arabic principles and grammatical parallels. Al-Alawi often justifies the statement he chooses, explaining the reason for choosing it, strengthening it and gathering evidence for it from hearing and analogy, rejecting other statements that oppose it, and explaining their invalidity and the reason for their corruption. (shrink)

The current study aimed at identifying the awareness level of artificial intelligence applications' risks among faculty members and its relation to the attitude towards digital culture at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University. The descriptive survey method was used. A questionnaire was designed to measure the awareness of the artificial intelligence applications' risks, and a scale for measuring the attitude towards digital culture. They were administered to a sample of [463] faculty members at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University. The study concluded (...) that there is an average awareness of the artificial intelligence applications' risks and the attitude towards digital culture among faculty members. A significant relationship was found out between awareness of the artificial intelligence applications' risks as a whole and the attitude towards digital culture. The results indicated that there are no differences in the awareness level of the artificial intelligence risks due to the variables of: gender, use duration of digital applications, and colleges. There are no differences in the variable of the attitude towards digital culture with its various dimensions: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective and its total score. The current study recommended designing a professional development plan for faculty members on the negative effects and risks of artificial intelligence, and launching an Arab platform based on artificial intelligence applications. (shrink)

This study aimed to identify the social responsibility of higher education institutions in supporting the entrepreneurship sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, To achieve this goal, the descriptive and analytical method was used, by designing a questionnaire and distributing it to the research sample, which consists of 200 students and workers at Imam Abdul Rahman bin Faisal University. The study found the importance of training and qualification in developing and stimulating entrepreneurship in the Kingdom, The lack of development of (...) educational curricula is considered an obstacle to development.In light of these results, the study recommended the necessity of investing in the education and training sector, qualifying workers and students, in addition to developing educational courses by making use of the experiences of others, especially in developed countries. (shrink)

It is tempting to regard the perpetrators of the September 11th terrorist attacks as evil incarnate. But their motives, as Bruce Lincoln’s acclaimed Holy Terrors makes clear, were profoundly and intensely religious. Thus what we need after the events of 9/11, Lincoln argues, is greater clarity about what we take religion to be. Holy Terrors begins with a gripping dissection of the instruction manual given to each of the 9/11 hijackers. In their evocation of passages from the Quran, we learn (...) how the terrorists justified acts of destruction and mass murder “in the name of God, the most merciful, the most compassionate.” Lincoln then offers a provocative comparison of President Bush’s October 7, 2001 speech announcing U.S. military action in Afghanistan alongside the videotaped speech released by Osama bin Laden just a few hours later. As Lincoln authoritatively demonstrates, a close analysis of the rhetoric used by leaders as different as George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden—as well as Mohamed Atta and even Jerry Falwell—betrays startling similarities. These commonalities have considerable implications for our understanding of religion and its interrelationships with politics and culture in a postcolonial world, implications that Lincoln draws out with skill and sensitivity. With a chapter new to this edition, “Theses on Religion and Violence,” Holy Terrors remains one of the essential books on September 11 and a classic study on the character of religion. “Modernity has ended twice: in its Marxist form in 1989 Berlin, and in its liberal form on September 11, 2001. In order to understand such major historical changes we need both large-scale and focused analyses—a combination seldom to be found in one volume. But here Bruce Lincoln . . . has given us just such a mix of discrete and large-picture analysis.”—Stephen Healey, Christian Century “From time to time there appears a work . . . that serves to focus the wide-ranging, often contentious discussion of religion’s significance within broader cultural dynamics. Bruce Lincoln’s Holy Terrors is one such text. . . . Anyone still struggling toward a more nuanced comprehension of 9/11 would do well to spend time with this book.”—Theodore Pulcini, Middle East Journal. (shrink)

Whilst the field of contemporary art has been impeded until recently by Saudi Arabia’s blasphemy laws and heavy censorship, the last decade has seen a rapid growth of art networks and institutions. Incidents such as the conviction of internationally lauded artist and curator Ashraf Fayadh in 2015 on charges of apostasy show that Islamic authorities still claim to define what is acceptable and not acceptable in the field of cultural production, but several renowned Saudi artists have started to question the (...) hegemony of the Islamic field. This article discusses these processes in the context of radical economic reform led by the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Why do state actors see an investment in art and creativity as a necessity for economic renewal? What role does contemporary art play in strategies to rebrand the negative image of Saudi Arabia? How do artists relate to Islamic narratives and material culture to claim authority in Islamic debates and provide legitimacy for their concerns? By focusing on the interactions between economic reform and new spaces of Islamic critique, the paper aims to shed light on the way in which the drive for economic transformation is remapping the social boundaries between Islamic authorities, the creative economy and the state. (shrink)

This book explores the epistemic or knowledge requirement of moral responsibility. Haji argues that an agent can be blamed (or praised) only if the agent harbors a belief that the action in question is wrong (or right or obligatory). Defending the importance of an "authenticity" condition when evaluating moral responsibility, Haji holds that one cannot be morally responsible for an action unless the action issues from sources (like desires or beliefs) that are truly the agent's own. Engaging crucial (...) arguments in moral theory to elaborate his views on moral responsibility, Haji addresses as well fascinating, underexamined topics such as assigning blame across an intercultural gap and the relevance of unconscious or dream thoughts when evaluating responsibility. (shrink)

This book addresses a dilemma concerning freedom and moral obligation (obligation, right and wrong). If determinism is true, then no one has control over one's actions. If indeterminism is true, then no one has control over their actions. But it is morally obligatory, right or wrong for one to perform some action only if one has control over it. Hence, no one ever performs an action that is morally obligatory, right or wrong. The author defends the view that this dilemma (...) can be evaded but not in a way traditional compatibilists about freedom and moral responsibility will find congenial. For moral obligation is indeed incompatible with determinism but not with indeterminism. He concludes with an argument to the effect that, if determinism is true and no action is morally obligatory, right or wrong, then our world would be considerably morally impoverished as several sorts of moral appraisal would be unjustified. (shrink)

This research study was aimed to examine the cross-national coverage and framing patterns about Jamal Khashoggi’s murder in international media through focusing on newspapers. Khashoggi; an internationally acclaimed US based Saudi journalist was brutally assassinated at Kingdom’s consulate in Turkey which created the global outcry. As this issue made headlines worldwide for several months, the media from USA, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Turkey; the most substantially and politically involved countries presumably used certain framing patterns in their coverage. To find (...) out the difference in coverage intensity and media frames, a content analysis based comparative study of US, Saudi and Turkish newspapers was conducted which is guided by the framing theory of Mass Communication. The results showed that the media from three selected countries dealt the same issue with significant differences in coverage and framing patterns. We concluded based on our findings that such differences in cross-national coverage patterns were influenced by the respective state’s ideology, interests, governance system, public narrative, or media settings. This study also explored some facts regarding freedom of expression and about journalists who have been targeted in reprisal of their professional work all over the world. The findings of the study elaborate that most of the newspapers used anti-Saudi frames in their coverage. So far as overall coverage is concerned Turkish and US papers provided a significant coverage to the issue while newspapers from Saudi Arabia provided least coverage to the issue as their media are highly state bound. (shrink)

Originally published 1867. This volume describes not only the basic tenets of the Sufis but also the _Ahl i wahdat_ which was a branch of Sufism. The author’s use of a Persian manuscript treatise by ‘Aziz bin Mohammed Nafasi’ is an indispensable tool, particularly because the author did not merely translate it but gave a clearer and more succinct account of the system. The volume contains an Appendix containing a glossary of allegorical and technical terms in use among Sufiistic (...) writers. (shrink)

These are the "loser sons," a group of historical men as varied as President George W. Bush, Osama bin Laden, and Mohammed Atta.

Introduction: The metaphysics of responsibility and philosophy of education -- Moral responsibility, authenticity, and the problem of manipulation -- A novel perspective on the problem of authenticity -- Forward-looking authenticity in the internalism/externalism debate -- Authentic education, indoctrination, and moral responsibility -- Moral responsibility, hard incompatibilism, and interpersonal relationships -- On the significance of moral responsibility and love -- Love, commendability, and moral obligation -- Love, determinism, and normative education.

Something is subject to luck if it is beyond our control. In Luck's Mischief, Haji argues that owing frequently to precluding our being able to otherwise, luck limits both the range of what is morally obligatory for us and things for which we are morally responsible.

I assess Robert Kane's view that global Frankfurt-type cases don't show that freedom to do otherwise is never required for moral responsibility. I first adumbrate Kane's indeterminist account of free will.This will help us grasp Kane's notion of ultimate responsibility, and his claim that in a global Frankfurt-type case, the counterfactual intervener could not control all of the relevant agent's actions in the Frankfurt manner, and some of those actions would be such that the agent could have done otherwise. Appealing (...) to considerations of responsibility and luck, I then show that the global cases survive Kane's objections. (shrink)

Key elements of Randolph Clarke's libertarian account of freedom that requires both agent-causation and non-deterministic event-causation in the production of free action is assessed with an eye toward determining whether agent-causal accounts can accommodate the truth of judgments of moral obligation.

There are no moral obligations: either it is determined in advance what we will do, or it is not. But any action not in our control cannot be obligatory for us. Hence, regardless of whether our actions are determined to occur, nothing is obligatory. This conclusion has important implications for conceptions of moral responsibility and free will.

I motivate a dilemma to show that nothing can be obligatory for anyone regardless of whether determinism or indeterminism is true. The deterministic horn, to which prime attention is directed, exploits the thesis that obligation requires freedom to do otherwise. Since determinism precludes such freedom, it precludes obligation too. The indeterministic horn allows for freedom to do otherwise but assumes the burden of addressing whether indeterministically caused choices or actions are too much of a matter of luck to be obligatory (...) for anyone. I critically discuss a response to the deterministic horn that invokes the distinction between alternatives compatible with determinism and those incompatible with determinism. (shrink)

This paper revisits the issue of whether responsibility is essentially historical. Roughly, the leading question here is this: Do ways in which we can acquire pertinent antecedents of action, such as beliefs, desires, and values, have an essential bearing on whether we are responsible for actions that are suitably related to these antecedents? I argue, first, that Michael McKenna’s interesting case for nonhistoricism is indecisive, and, second, his brand of modest historicism, while highly insightful, yields results concerning responsibility that ought (...) to be resisted. I conclude by motivating a hybrid view: it implies that responsibility does not require that one have a past, but should one have a past, it must be a past of a certain sort. (shrink)

I first adumbrate pertinent aspectsof Robert Kane''s libertarian theory of free choice oraction and an objection of luck that has been levelledagainst the theory. I then consider Kane''s recentresponses to this objection. To meet these responses,I argue that the view that undetermined choices (ofthe sort implied by Kane''s theory) are a matter ofluck is associated with a view about actionexplanation, to wit: when Jones does A and hisdoing of A is undetermined, and when hiscounterpart, Jones*, in the nearest possibleworld in (...) which the past and the laws are held constantuntil the moment of choice does B instead, thereis no explanation (deterministic or indeterministic)of the difference in outcome – Jones''s A-ing butJones*''s B-ing – in terms of prior reasonsor motives of either agent. Absence of such anexplanation is one crucial factor that underliesthe charge that Jones''s A-ing and Jones*''sB-ing are matters of luck. I argue that thissort of luck is incompatible with responsibility. (shrink)

This book extends our understanding of the nature of moral obligation and moral responsibility by arguing that they are far more similar in pertinent respects than frequently conceived. First, the view that, unlike obligation, responsibility does not require freedom to do otherwise is challenged. Conceptual ties between obligation and responsibility largely speak in favor of responsibility’s requiring alternatives. Second, many philosophers champion responsibility semicompatibilism, the thesis that even if determinism is incompatible with freedom to do otherwise, it is compatible with (...) responsibility. Essential relations between obligation and responsibility are deployed against this thesis, and the parallel thesis of obligation semicompatibilism is rejected. An upshot of forsaking these species of semicompatibilism is that determinism threatens both obligation and responsibility in virtue of eliminating alternate possibilities. Third, many concur that whereas you may now no longer have an obligation that you previously had, you cannot now fail to be blameworthy for something for which you were formerly to blame. This immutability thesis about blameworthiness is shown to be false, and significant ramifications of its falsity are exposed. Finally, a legitimate difference between obligation and responsibility is uncovered: while how you acquire your values may significantly influence whether you are responsible for much of your conduct, obligation is not “historical” in this way. The impact of these similarities and the one difference on whether obligation is overriding and whether various accounts of practical rationality, love, and punishment are cogent is discussed. (shrink)

Determinism is the thesis that ‘there is at any instant exactly one physically possible future.’ When various compatibilists discuss determinism and moral responsibility, they champion the view that although determinism is inconsistent with freedom to do otherwise, it is nevertheless consistent with responsibility. Determinism, then, does not, in the view of these compatibilists, threaten one sort of moral appraisal — the sort we make, for example, when we say that someone is blameworthy for some deed. Call moral deontic normative statuses (...) like those of being morally right, wrong, or obligatory, ‘moral anchors.’ A key objective of this paper is to show that even if compatibilists can secure moral responsibility against the threat of determinism, possibly, by establishing that freedom to do otherwise is not the right sort of freedom required for responsibility, they will not be able to secure the very anchors of morality by any similar line of reasoning. Specifically, I argue that if certain principles of moral obligation are true, nothing can be morally right, wrong, or obligatory in a world in which we lack alternative possibilities. Thus, whereas unfreedom to do otherwise may be compatible with responsibility, it is incompatible with moral anchorage. (shrink)

Recently, Neil Levy has proposed that an agent can acquire freedom-relevant agential abilities by virtue of the conditions in which she finds herself, and in this way, can be thought of as partially constituted by those conditions. This can be so even if the agent is completely ignorant of the relevant environmental conditions, and even if these conditions play no causal role in what the agent does. Drawing upon these resources, Levy argues that Frankfurt-style examples are not cogent. In this (...) paper, we explain why his argument fails. (shrink)

My primary objective is to motivate the concern that leading libertarian views of free action seem unable to account for an agent’s behavior in a way that reveals an explanatorily apt connection between the agent’s prior reasons and the intentional behavior to be explained. I argue that it is this lack of a suitable reasons explanation of purportedly free decisions that underpins the objection that agents who act with the pertinent sort of libertarian freedom cannot be morally responsible for what (...) they do because their intentional behavior is a matter of luck. The accounts scrutinized include a Kane-type event-causal view, Clarke’s account that appeals to both agent causation and event causation in the production of free action, and O’Connor’s pure agent-causal account. I conclude by discussing an advantage these libertarian accounts enjoy over compatibilist contenders: they possess a feature necessary to accommodate the truth of judgments of moral obligation. (shrink)

I argue that emotional sensitivity (or insensitivity) has a marked negative influence on ethical perception. Diminished capacities of ethical perception, in turn, mitigate what we are morally responsible for while lack of such capacities may altogether eradicate responsibility. Impairment in ethical perception affects responsibility by affecting either recognition of or reactivity to moral reasons. It follows that emotional insensitivity (together with its attendant impairment in ethical perception) bears saliently on moral responsibility. Since one distinguishing mark of the psychopath is emotional (...) insensitivity, emotional insensitivity and the resulting impairment in moral perception either excuses the psychopath from moral culpability or moderates the degree to which he is culpable. (shrink)

Event-causal libertarianism concerning free will faces two challenging problems of control. Indeterminism so diminishes control that it is incompatible with an indeterministically caused act's being free. Since event-causal libertarianism's metaphysical or agency commitments are no richer than those of its best compatibilist rivals, how does event-causal libertarianism secure for libertarian free agents more control than these rivals? I argue that the two problems are inextricably associated in that whether event-causal libertarianism can deliver enhanced control depends upon a solution to problem (...) , but there are formidable hurdles in the way of reaching this solution. (shrink)

An overarching aim of education is the promotion of children's personal well-being. Liberal educationalists also support the promotion of children's personal autonomy as a central educational aim. On some views, such as John White's, these two goals—furthering well-being and cultivating autonomy—can come apart. Our primary aim in this paper is to argue for a species of a stronger view: assuming preferentism as our axiology, we suggest that there is an essential association between the autonomy of our springs of action, such (...) as desires and beliefs, on the one hand, and personal well-being, on the other. If we are right about this link, then we have at our disposal a partial (non-instrumental) validation of the liberal ideal of autonomy. (shrink)

The set with the following members is inconsistent: F-Lesson: A person can be blameworthy for performing an action even though she cannot refrain from performing it. Equivalence: ‘Ought not’ is equivalent to ‘impermissible.’ OIC: ‘Ought’ implies ‘can’ and ‘ought not’ implies ‘can refrain from.’ BRI: Necessarily, one is morally blameworthy for doing something only if it is overall morally impermissible for one to do it. Since Equivalence seems unassailable, one can escape the inconsistency by renouncing any one of the other (...) members. I first argue against BRI and then motivate a replacement for it that ties blameworthiness to belief in impermissibility. (shrink)

I examine John Martin Fischer's attempt to block an argument for the conclusion that without alternative possibilities, morally deontic judgments (judgments of moral right, wrong, and obligation) cannot be true. I then criticize a recent attempt to sustain the principle that an agent is morally blameworthy for performing an action only if this action is morally wrong. I conclude with discussing Fisher's view that even if causal determinism undermines morally deontic judgments, it still leaves room for other significant moral assessments (...) including assessments of moral blameworthiness. (shrink)

The problem of luck is advanced and defended against libertarian theories of responsibility-enabling ability. An outline of an account of ability is articulated to explore some features of the sort of ability moral responsibility requires. The account vindicates the luck objection and suggests a novel puzzle: Libertarianism is structurally barred from answering the problem of luck because responsibility requires, but inherently lacks, an explanation from reason states to actions that preserves reliability of connection between responsibility-grounding reasons-sensitivity and action.