Paula Satne

University of Leeds, IDEA Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied, Faculty Member

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I am a moral philosopher currently teaching ethics at the Centre for Inter-Disciplinary Applied Ethics at the University of Leeds (UK). Previously, I was joint course leader and senior lecturer in philosophy at the University of Wolverhampton, a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Manchester and a teaching fellow at Durham University. I have also held teaching and/or lecturing posts at Keele University, Open University, Bolton University and Universidad de Buenos Aires.

I work on political philosophy and ethics. I am interested in both theoretical and applied issues related to human evil and the ethics and politics of forgiveness and memory. My current research is on political forgiveness and public commemoration, transitional justice, pacifism, punishment, conflict resolution and our share responsibility and complicity in structural injustice (i.e. climate change, poverty, international relations, and war).

I also have a longstanding interest in the history of ethics (particularly Aristotle, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel and Sartre) and the intersection of ethics with philosophy of mind (i.e. moral psychology, motivation, practical rationality, guilt, remorse, emotions, moral judgement and moral reasons, metaethics) and with philosophy of art (i.e. political and moral engagement in art).

My most recent research aims to understand the relationship between political forgiveness and public commemoration by exploring the experiences of highly organised groups of victims of atrocity in Argentina (e.g. Mothers and Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo). This research draws from contemporary literature in political philosophy and ethics as well as other disciplines (history, psychology and anthropology).

I have recently co-edited (with Krisanna Scheiter from Union College New York) a volume on Conflict and Resolution- the Ethics of Forgiveness, Revenge and Punishment (Springer, 2022). I have co-written the introduction and contributed a sole-authored chapter entitled "Remembrance beyond Forgiveness." This chapter argues that political forgiveness is sometimes, but not always, compatible with public commemoration of politically motivated wrongdoing and draws on the example of Argentina in order to show how some forms of political un-forgiveness can be morally legitimate and effective ways for victims to uphold moral demands.

In addition, in various recent articles, I have been developing a neo-Kantian approach to forgiveness, exploring the relationship between forgiveness, memory, moral development, justice, punishment and self-respect. I am co-editor of Kant’s Doctrine of Right in the 21st Century (UWP, 2018), a volume dedicated to explore the relevance of Kant’s Doctrine of Right in contemporary political theory.

I love Spinoza but I am convinced I ought to be a Kantian.

I am also a mum of two very active and energetic young boys. When I am not reading, writing and/ or teaching philosophy, I love to draw. You can check my drawings in Instagram @PaulaSatneDrawings

Links to most of my papers or abstracts can be found in my Phil Papers page: https://philpeople.org/profiles/paula-satne/publications

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University of Delaware

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The University of Texas at Austin

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Princeton University

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York University

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University of Bucharest

Richard Bellamy

University College London

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Babette Babich

Fordham University

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Presentación de las editoras: el impacto de Onora O'Neill en los estudios kantianos en lengua española

Construyendo la autonomía, la autoridad y la justicia: leer a Kant con Onora O'Neill

Este volumen presenta la primera recopilacion sistematica de dialogos y discusiones que especiali... more Este volumen presenta la primera recopilacion sistematica de dialogos y discusiones que especialistas hispanohablantes en el pensamiento de Immanuel Kant mantienen desde hace anos con la dilatada obra de la Profesora Emerita de la Universidad de Cambridge, Onora O´Neill, Baronesa de Bengarve. Las contribuciones de destacados estudiosos de Argentina, Mexico y Espana se centran en la actualizacion de la racionalidad practica kantiana por parte de O´Neill, con especial atencion a la interpretacion del contractualismo, las condiciones de la justicia, la construccion del espacio publico, la fundamentacion de los derechos humanos y la logica de la autoconfianza en la accion, sin la que la autonomia quedaria carente de una base solida. La Profesora O´Neill ha redactado un texto expreso para presentar los trabajos reunidos en el volumen, en el que realiza un balance de su amplio itinerario intelectual, senalando algunos hitos en torno a los que se articulan los capitulos. Las editoras confian en que esta publicacion resulte del interes del publico especializado en la discusion contemporanea sobre el pensamiento practico de Kant, tomando como guia en esta ocasion a una de sus interpretes actuales mas prestigiosas.

Kant's Doctrine of Right in the 21st Century

Kant’s Doctrine of Right in the Twenty-first Century

by Paula Satne and Larry Krasnoff

Kantian Forgiveness: Fallibility, Guilt and the need to become a Better Person: Reply to Blöser

Philosophia, Mar 10, 2020

In 'Human Fallibility and the Need for Forgiveness', Claudia Blöser (2019) has proposed a Kantian... more In 'Human Fallibility and the Need for Forgiveness', Claudia Blöser (2019) has proposed a Kantian account of our reasons to forgive that situates our moral fallibility as their ultimate ground. Blöser argues that Kant's duty to be forgiving is grounded on the need to be relieved from the burden of our moral failure (guilt), a need that we all have in virtue of our moral fallible nature, regardless of whether or not we have repented. Blöser claims that Kant's proposal yields a plausible account of the normative status of forgiveness. Kant classifies the duty to be forgiving as a wide (imperfect) duty of virtue, and according to Blöser, this means that Kantian forgiveness is elective in the sense that forgiveness is good in general (i.e. an attitude that we have moral reason to adopt) but without being obligatory in each particular case. In the course of presenting her own reconstruction of Kant's account, Blöser also objects to some aspects of an interpretation of Kant's theory of forgiveness which I had previously defended in my paper 'Forgiveness and Moral Development' (2016). Although there are a lot of points of agreement between our interpretations, the aim of this article is to highlight four key points of disagreement. These issues are worth discussing because they have implications not only for a plausible interpretation of a recognisable Kantian account of forgiveness but also for wider debates in the contemporary literature on forgiveness. First, I show that Kant is not committed to a form of weak situationism as suggested by Blöser and that Kant's grounding of the duty to be forgiving does not appeal to moral luck. Second, I argue that although Kant's duty to be forgiving is elective in one sense of the term, it is not elective in another important sense of the term, and that it is in fact better not to interpret Kantian imperfect duties as being elective. Third, I show that awareness of moral fallibility per se does not provide a morally appropriate ground for forgiveness and offer an alternative reconstruction of Kant's account-in which fallibility plays a role, but it is not the main reason to forgive. Finally, I argue that Blöser's account of the need to be forgiven is not recognisable Kantian because, from a Kantian perspective, repentance is a necessary condition for the desirability and, in fact, the very possibility of ameliorating our own guilt.

Paula Satne

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