Philosopher
Saul Smilansky
I am a Professor at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Haifa, Israel. I work primarily on normative and applied ethics, the free will problem, and meaning in life. In normative and applied ethics and MIL I am particularly interested in moral paradoxes and other forms of "crazy ethics" where matters seem to be true (or at least plausible) yet are also absurd, moral theory, justice, the role of self-deception and illusion in our lives, population ethics, punishment, egalitarianism, moral complaint and hypocrisy, the influence of technology on the future of morality, gratitude, and the significance of contribution. On free will I have done various things. My main efforts have been, first, to open up the debate on the compatibility question to a pluralistic approach that sees both compatibilism and hard determinism (or other forms of free will and moral responsibility denialism) as partly valid and seeks to integrate them. Second, to explore Illusionism, the view that illusion is central and, in many ways, positive in the free will problem. I am the author of Free Will and Illusion (Oxford University Press 2000), 10 Moral Paradoxes (Blackwell 2007), and over one hundred papers in philosophical journals and edited collections.
I received my B.A. from Tel-Aviv University and my D.Phil from Oxford University (Magdalen College).
Recent Events
Talks
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An interview on some of my moral paradoxes and "Designer ethics" in The Dissentar, published June 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF96xR-t0Zw
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"Radical Moral Pluralism: A Proposal", Ethics Department, University of Warsaw, 21 October 2022.
- "Suicide, Organ Donation and Meaning in Life: Some Disturbing Reflections", The Interdisciplinary Centre for Ethics, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, 24 October 2022.
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“The Reality of Free Will”, in “Realism: Epistemological Foundations and Metaphysical Implications”, Kazimierz, Poland; October 26–28, 2022.
Publications
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"A Hostage Situation", Journal of Philosophy, 2019, 116 (2019): 447-466. https://doi.org/10.5840/jphil2019116827
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"We Are All in this Life Together", Iyyun 68 (2020): 85-93. Download article
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"The Moral Evaluation of Past Tragedies: A New Puzzle", Journal of Moral Philosophy 17 (2020): 188-201. https://brill.com/view/journals/jmp/17/2/article-p188_188.xml
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"Should We Sacrifice the Utilitarians First?", Philosophical Quarterly 70 (2020): 850-867. https://doi.org/10.1093/pq/pqaa003.
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(With Juha Räikkä) "Black Magic and Respecting Persons - Some Perplexities", Ratio 33 (2020): 173-183. https://doi.org/10.1111/rati.12282
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"Do You Have to Reply to This Paper?', Philosophia https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-020-00294-3.
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"The Idea of Moral Duties to History", Philosophy 96 (2021): 155-179. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819120000388.
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"A Puzzle About Self-Sacrificing Altruism", Journal of Controversial Ideas https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/article/1/1/135.
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"Three Kinds of Failure", Iyyun 69 (2021): 299-313. Download article
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"Overpunishment and the Punishment of the Innocent", Analytic Philosophy, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/phib.12235.
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"Contribution, Replaceability and the Meaning of Our Lives", Theoria https://doi.org/10.1111/theo.12352 .
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"Illusionism", in Derk Pereboom and Dana Nelkin, eds., Oxford Handbook of Moral Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
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"Two Concepts of Effort", Philosophia. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-022-00494-z
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"Paradoxes and Meaning in Life", in Iddo Landau, ed., Oxford Handbook for Meaning in Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.
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"Reversing Pascal: Skepticism about Religious Belief and Its Value", Religious Studies. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412522000592
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"Normative Pluralism and Autonomous Vehicles", in Ryan Jenkins, Tomáš Hříbek and David Černý, eds., AV Ethics: Beyond the Trolley Problem. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
- "God as an Asset and Some Paradoxical Implications", Religious Studies https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034412523000082