How much should mere chance play in our views of praise or blame? That’s the question that Philip Swenson, first-year assistant professor of philosophy at William & Mary, is researching and discussing ...

Suppose two 18-year-old students decide to consume copious amounts of liquor on a Friday night. Further suppose one of these 18-year-olds, named Sally, drank liquor in her friend’s dorm room. The ...

The punishment for murder is more severe than the punishment for attempted murder. But it’s not completely obvious why. The person who tried to kill but failed is just as bad a person. One explanation ...

Consider two cases: Situation A, and Situation B. In both, someone decides to kill her hated enemy. She finds the weapon of choice. She tracks her target’s movements. She finds the perfect moment, ...

A person, who acts immorally or recklessly but is “lucky” by escaping dire consequences, is judged less harshly than an “unlucky” person, even when both have committed the same act. "Moral luck" is a ...

In a striking autobiographical essay from 2017 titled, "My Family's Slave," writer Alex Tizon recounts the story of his mother – an immigrant from the Philippines – and her slave, Lola, whom she’d ...

The Channel 4 documentary, ‘Hitler's DNA: Blueprint of a Dictator’ has carried out a controversial genetic analysis of the Nazi leader. The test shows "very high" scores - in the top 1% - for a ...