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My first book, Responsibility & Luck: A Defense of Praise and Blame, is available for purchase in paperback, as well as for Kindle and Nook.

Does the pervasive influence of luck in life mean that people cannot be held responsible for their choices? Do people lack the control required to justify moral praise and blame? In his famous article "Moral Luck," philosopher Thomas Nagel casts doubt on our ordinary moral judgments of persons. He claims that we intuitively accept that moral responsibility requires control, yet we praise and blame people for their actions, the outcomes of those actions, and their characters – even though shaped by forces beyond their control, i.e., by luck. This is the "problem of moral luck."

In Responsibility & Luck, I argue that this attack on moral judgment rests on a faulty view of control, as well as other errors. By developing Aristotle's theory of moral responsibility, I explain the sources and limits of a person's responsibility for what he does, what he produces, and who he is. Ultimately, I show that moral judgments are not undermined by luck. In addition, this book explores the nature of moral agency and free will, the purpose of moral judgment, causation in tort and criminal law, the process of character development, and more.

Responsibility & Luck is scholarly but accessible to active-minded people interested in philosophy. You can preview the book by reading Chapter One and Chapter Three as PDFs – or by listening to my reading of Chapter One.

The subjects discussed in this episode were:

• A few words about Allan Gotthelf
• Robert's introduction to Chinese censorship
• China's approach to censorship
• Censorship at the university
• The internet in Hong Kong
• Limitations on teaching
• The effectiveness of censorship with students
• Censorship of the mainstream media
• Censorship of new social media
• Circumventing censorship
• The effectiveness of censorship
• Awareness of disappeared persons
• China and the four elements of dictatorship

• Robert Garmong's Blog: Professor in Dalian
• Academics Launch Fake Social Network to Get an Inside Look at Chinese Censorship
• Philosophy in Action: Robert Garmong on Teaching in China
• Philosophy in Action: Robert Garmong on Should We Fear or Embrace China?

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