publications

Manuel Vargas

Elsewhere on this site: Home | Pursuing a PhD in Latin American Philosophy

Welcome!

I work on a variety of topics. Some of my work has concerned the normative foundations of responsibility and blame, and the significance of sociality for agency. Another strand of my work has focused on topics in Latin American philosophy, especially the history of Mexican philosophy. I've also done some work on Latinx philosophy (i.e., philosophical questions concerned with US Latinxs, which is distinct from philosophy produced in Latin America), and philosophy of race more broadly. I've also published in the philosophy of law, and I have a robust interest in debates about philosophical methodology, especially in connection with free will.

Depending on your interests, these might be some reasonable starting places:

For my recent-ish work in the history of Latin American philosophy, I recommend starting with "The Philosophy of Accidentality"
For an outline of my theory of moral responsibility, the obvious thing is Building Better Beings, but that's long and the view has been updated in various ways. The most representative thing that is current is probably "Constitutive Instrumentalism and the Fragility of Responsibility," which re-configures some of the signaling approach I developed with David Shoemaker, embedding it within my broadly instrumentalist story about the justification of responsibility practices.
For a recent statement of my views on free will, read this, which is from the (completely re-written) second edition of Four Views on Free Will.
Reflections on the surprisingly messy nature of the category "Latinx" can be found in this essay.
I've also started writing about the social function of religion and the effects of secularization, informed by recent sociological work on secularization and older (19th century) fights about liberalism in Latin America. Stay tuned.

full cv (pdf)

Monographs

Mexican Philosophy. (under contract) Oxford University Press.

Four Views on Free Will: 2nd Edition [completely revised and expanded] (in press) Co-authored with John Martin Fischer, Robert Kane, and Derk Pereboom. Wiley-Blackwell.

Building Better Beings: A Theory of Moral Responsibility. (2013) Oxford University Press

Winner of the APA Book Prize (2015)
Published reviews of the book:
Ethics | Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews | Philosophy in Review | Philosophical Quarterly | Social Theory and Practice | Journal of Moral Philosophy | Choice | Theoria
Symposium on Building Better Beings, with critical essays by John Doris, Victoria McGeer, and Michael Robinson, in Philosophical Studies 172.10 (2015) pp. 2621-2678.

Four Views on Free Will. (2007) Co-authored with John Martin Fischer, Robert Kane, and Derk Pereboom. Wiley-Blackwell.

Published reviews of the book:
Philosophical Review | Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews | Social Theory & Practice (pdf) | Metaphilosophy | Metapsychology | Critica (pdf) | The Heythrop Journal
Symposium on Four Views on Free Will, published in Philosophical Studies 144.1 (2009) pp. 3-62 (available at Springerlink.com).

Edited volumes

Gallegos, L., Vargas, M., and Gallegos, F. The Latina/o/x Philosophy Reader. Routledge (under contract).

Amaya, S., Shoemaker, D., Vargas, M., eds. (2024) Oxford Studies in Agency and Responsibility, Vol. 8: Non-Ideal Agency and Responsibility. New York: Oxford University Press.

Vargas, M. and Doris, J., eds. (2022) The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology. Oxford University Press.

Vargas, M. and Yaffe, G., eds (2014). Rational and Social Agency: The Philosophy of Michael Bratman. Oxford University Press.

• Published reviews of the book: Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews | Social Ontology | Journal of Moral Philosophy

Articles, book chapters, reviews, etc. (single-authored unless otherwise indicated)

(forthcoming) “Blame, Oppression, and Retributive Punishment” in S. Figueroa Rubio and I. Ortiz de Urbina (Eds.). Opresión, responsabilidad y delito. [Oppression, Responsibility, and Crime] Madrid, Spain: Marcial Pons. (prepublication draft- English).

Ortiz Villa, K., Salomón, E., and Vargas, M. (forthcoming) “Work and Latin American Philosophy.” In J. Jonker & G. Rozeboom (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Work, New York: Oxford University Press. (prepublication draft)

(2024) “What is the Free Will Debate Even About?” The Harvard Review of Philosophy 30: 23–35. (prepublication draft)

(2024) “Counterfactual Genealogy, Speculative Accuracy, and Predicative Drift.” Inquiry 67 (8): 2702–27. (prepublication draft)

(2024) "Functionalisms and the Philosophy of Action. The Journal of Applied Philosophy (open access)

(2024) Nelkin, D & Vargas, M. (2024) "Responsibility and Reasons-Responsiveness." In T. Cyr, A. Law, & N. A. Tognazzini (Eds.), . New York: Routledge. Freedom, Responsibility, and Value: Essays in Honor of John Martin Fischer (prepublication draft)

(2024) Review of Derk Pereboom's Wrongdoing and the Moral Emotions. In The Philosophical Review. (2024) "What is the Free Will Debate Even About?"The Harvard Review of Philosophy 30: 23-35. (prepublication draft)

How Free Are We?

(2022) "If Aristotle had Cooked: The Philosophy of Sor Juana" Journal of Mexican Philosophy 1 (1): 13-38. (open access)

(2022) "Hispanics, Latinxs, Philosophers" APA Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues 21(2), 13-21. (prepublication draft)

(2022) "Instrumentalist Approaches to Moral Responsibility" in the Oxford Handbook on Moral Responsibility, Edited by D. Nelkin and D. Pereboom. NY: Oxford University Press: 3-26. (prepublication draft)

(2022) "Comparative What? Latin American Challenges to Philosophy-as-Worldview" Comparative Philosophy 13.2: 81-93. (open access)

(2022). Irresponsabilidad. In C. Pereda (Ed.), Diccionario de injusticia. (prepublication draft - English)

(2022) "Feminist and Ameliorative Responsibility" Syndicate. (prepublication draft)

Argetsinger, H., & Vargas, M. (2022). What’s the Relationship between the Theory and Practice of Moral Responsibility? Humana.Mente Journal of Philosophical Studies, 15(42), 29-62. (open access)

Mudrik, Liad, Inbal Gur Arie, Yoni Amir, Yarden Shir, Pamela Hieronymi, Uri Maoz, O’Connor, Timothy, Aaron Schurger, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Manuel Vargas, Tillmann Vierkant, and Adina Roskies. (2022) “Free Will Without Consciousness?” Trends in Cognitive Science. 26.7: 555-566.

Waggoner, M., Doris, J., and Vargas, M. (2022) "Situationism, Moral Improvement, and Moral Responsibility" in The Oxford Handbook of Moral Psychology ed. by Vargas and Doris. (prepublication draft)

Shoemaker, D & Vargas, M (2021) "Moral Torch Fishing: A Signaling Theory of Blame" in Noûs 55.3: 581-602. (prepublication draft)

(2021) "Constitutive Instrumentalism and the Fragility of Responsibility" The Monist. 104.4: 427-442. (prepublication draft)

(2021) "Irresponsible" Academia Letters. Article 128: 1-6. (open access)

(2020) "The Philosophy of Accidentality" in the Journal of the American Philosophical Association. 6.4: 391-409. (open access)

(2020) "Negligence and Social Self-Governance" Surrounding Self Control. Edited by Al Mele. New York: Oxford University Press, 400-420. (prepublication draft)

Murray, S. and Vargas, M. (2020) "Vigilance and Control" Philosophical Studies 177: 825-843. (prepublication draft)

(2019) "Responsibility, Methodology, and Desert" The Journal of Information Ethics: 131-147
Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2019) "Canonical Philosophy, Mexican Philosophy" APA Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues 18(2), 8-13.

Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2019) "Disagreement and Convergence on the Case of Latin American Philosophy, For Example" Comparative Philosophy 10(1), 209-213.
            Published version (open access)

(2018) "Latinx Philosophy" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
              Published version (open access)

(2018) "Reflectivism, Skepticism, and Values" Social Theory and Practice 41(2), 255-266.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2018) "Manipulation, Oppression, and the Deep Self" Behavioral and Brain Sciences 41, 48-50.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2018) Review of Sánchez and Sanchez, eds. Mexican Philosophy in the 20th Century: Essential Readings. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. Online publication date: September 27, 2018.
            Published version (open access)

(2018) "The Social Constitution of Responsible Agency: Oppression, Politics, and Moral Ecology"The Social Dimensions of Responsibility. Edited by Marina Oshana, Katrina Hutchinson, and Catriona Mackenzie. New York: Oxford University Press, 110-136.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2017) "Contested Terms and Philosophical Debates" Philosophical Studies 174.10, 2499-2510.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2017) "Implicit Bias, Moral Responsibility, and Moral Ecology" in Oxford Studies on Agency and Responsibility 4. Edited by David Shoemaker. New York: Oxford University Press: 219-247.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2016) Review of Carlos Alberto Sánchez. Contingency and Commitment: Mexican Existentialism and the Place of Philosophy. In Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (Sept. 09, 2016).
              Open access at: Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

(2016) "The Runeberg Problem: Theism, Libertarianism, and Motivated Reasoning" in Libertarianism and Free Will: The Interplay of Religious Belief and Free Will. Edited by Kevin Timpe and Daniel Speak, New York: Oxford University Press (2016) 27-47.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2016) "Responsibility and the Limits of Conversation" in Criminal Law and Philosophy 10.2, 221-240.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2015) "Précis of Building Better Beings" Philosophical Studies 172:10, 2621-2623.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2015) "Desert, Responsibility, and Justification: Reply to Doris, McGeer, and Robinson" Philosophical Studies 172:10, 2659-2678.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2015) Review of Shaun Nichols, Bound: Essays on Free Will and Moral Responsibility. In Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (July 28, 2015).
              Open access at: Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

(2015) "On Maurice Mandelbaum's "Freedom and Responsibility"" Ethics 125:3, 854-856.
            Published version | Prepublication PDF

Vargas, M. and Davis, J.P. (2015) "American Legal Realism and Practical Guidance" in Reasons and Intentions in Law and Practical Agency. Edited by G. Pavlakos and V. Rodriguez-Blanco (2015) 267-292.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2014) "Razian Responsibility" in Jurisprudence 5.1, 161-172.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2014) "Reconsidering Scientific Threats to Free Will" in Moral Psychology, Vol. 4: Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Edited by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 417-425.
              Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2014) "Social Explanations and the Free Will Problem" in Moral Psychology, Vol. 4: Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Edited by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 403-411.
              Published version | Prepublication PDF

Gracia, J. and Vargas, M. (2013) "Latin American Philosophy" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), forthcoming URL = <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/latin-american-philosophy/>
               Published version (Open access)

(2013) "If Free Will Doesn't Exist, Then Neither Does Water" in Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Edited by Gregg Caruso. Lanham, MA: Lexington, 177-202.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2013) "How to Solve the Problem of Free Will" in The Philosophy of Free Will: Selected Contemporary Readings. Edited by Paul Russell and Oisin Deery. New York: Oxford University Press, 325-350.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2013) "Situationism and Responsibility: Free Will in Fragments" in Decomposing the Will. Edited by Till Vierkant, Julian Kiverstein, and Andy Clark. New York: Oxford University Press, 400-416.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2012) "Why the Luck Problem Isn't" in Philosophical Issues 22: Action Theory, 491-36.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2011) "Revisionist Accounts of Free Will: Origins, Varieties, and Challenges" in Oxford Handbook on Free Will. 2nd Edition. Edited by Robert Kane. New York: Oxford University Press, 457-484.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2011) "The Revisionist Turn: A Brief History of Recent Work on Free Will" in New Waves in Philosophy of Action. Ed. J. Aguilar, A. Buckareff, K. Frankish. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 143-172.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2010) "On the Value of Philosophy: The Latin American Case" Comparative Philosophy Vol. 1, no. 1, 33-52.
           Abstract | Published version (Open access pdf) | Prepublication PDF

(2010) "Responsibility in a World of Causes" in Philosophic Exchange 40, 56-78.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2010) Review of John Martin Fischer, Our Stories. In Ethics 120:3, 600-604.
              Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2009) "Reasons and Real Selves" in Ideas y Valores: Revista Colombiana de Filosofía 58.141, 67-84.
            Abstract | Published version (Open access pdf) | Prepublication PDF

(2009) "Revisionism about Free Will: A Statement and Defense" Philosophical Studies 144.1, 45-62.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2009) "Taking The Highway on Luck, Skepticism, and the Value of Responsibility" Journal of Moral Philosophy Vol. 6.2, 249-265.
              Abstract | Published version (available through IgentaConnect) | Prepublication PDF

(2009) Review of Alfred Mele, Effective Intentions: The Power of the Conscious Will. In Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (September 19, 2009).
           Open access at: Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

(2009) "Answers to Five Questions" in Philosophy of Action: Five Questions. Edited by Jesús Aguilar and Andrei Buckareff. Automatic/VIP Press, 273-282.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2008) "Moral Influence, Moral Responsibility" in Essays on Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Edited by Nick Trakakis and Daniel Cohen. Cambridge Scholars Press , 90-122.
            Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2007) "Real Philosophy, Metaphilosophy, Metametaphilosophy" CR: The New Centennial Review Vol. 7.3, 51-78.
               Abstract | Published version (also available at Project Muse)

Vargas, M and Nichols, S. (2007) "Psychopaths and Moral Knowledge" Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, Vol. 14.2, 157-162.
            Abstract | Published version (available through Project MUSE) | Prepublication PDF

Nichols, S. and Vargas, M. (2007) "How to Be Fair to Psychopaths" Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Psychology, Vol. 14.2, 153-155.
            Abstract | Published version (available through Project MUSE) | Prepublication PDF

(2006) "Philosophy and the Folk: On Some Implications of Experimental Work for Philosophical Debates on Free Will" The Journal of Cognition and Culture 6: 1 & 2, 249-264.
              Abstract | Published version (available through Igenta) | Prepublication PDF

(2006) "On the Importance of History for Responsible Agency" Philosophical Studies 127:3, 351-382.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2006) Review of Personal Autonomy: New Essays on Personal Autonomy and its Role in Contemporary Moral Philosophy, edited by James Stacey Taylor. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (August 21, 2006).
           Open access: Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

(2005) "Eurocentrism and the Philosophy of Liberation" APA Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues Vol. 4, no. 2, 8-17.
     Winner of the 2004 APA Prize in Latin American Thought
           Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2005) "Practical Reason, Instrumental Irrationality, and Time" Philosophical Studies 126:2, 241-252.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2005) "The Revisionist's Guide to Responsibility" Philosophical Studies 125:3, 399-429.
              Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2005) "The Trouble with Tracing" in Howard Wettstein and John Martin Fischer, eds. Midwest Studies in Philosophy 29:1, 460-475 .
              Abstract | Published version

(2005) "Compatibilism Evolves? Some Varieties of Dennett Worth Wanting" in Metaphilosophy 36, no. 4, 460-75.
    (Part of a symposium on Daniel Dennett's Freedom Evolves.)
              Abstract | Published version

(2004) "Libertarianism & Skepticism about Free Will: Some Arguments Against Both" Philosophical Topics 32:1&2, 403-26.

Abstract | Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2004) Review of Unprincipled Virtue by Nomy Arpaly. In Journal of Ethics 8:2, 201-204.
              Published version (Available via Springerlink.com) | Prepublication PDF

(2004) "Responsibility and the Aims of Theory: Strawson and Revisionism" Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 85:2, 218-241.
              Abstract | Published version

(2004) "Biologia y la Filosofia de la Raza en Mexico: Bulnes y Vasconcelos" Construcción de las Identidades Latinoamericanas: Ensayos de Historia Intelectual, ed. by A. Granados and Carlos Marichal. México, D.F.: Colegio de México.
    (Note: this essay is in Spanish and it largely re-works material originally in "Lessons from the Philosophy of Race in Mexico.")
              Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2004) Review of Contemporary Philosophy: Volume 8: Philosophy of Latin America, ed. by of G. Floistad, in Philosophy in Review 24, no. 4 (2004).
              Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2000) "Lessons from the Philosophy of Race in Mexico" Philosophy Today, vol. 44, SPEP Supplement 2000 vol. 26, pp. 18-29.
              Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2000) Review of The Identity of Liberation in Latin American Thought by Mario Saenz in APA Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues. 00:1, Fall 2000, pp.73-4.
              Published version | Prepublication PDF

(2000) "Crossing the Borders of Philosophy: Some Thoughts on the 14th Interamerican Congress" APA Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues. 99: 2, Spring 2000, pp. 217-219.
              Published version | Prepublication PDF

Public philosophy & media

I've also written some philosophy for a wider (i.e., non-specialist) audience. One such bit of writing is a piece for the Philosopher's Magazine entitled "Responsibility's Death By Neuroscience Has Been Greatly Exaggerated."

Less serious is the piece “Dead Serious: Evil and the Ontology of the Undead” The Undead and Philosophy, edited by Richard Greene & K. Silem Mohammad, Peru, IL: Open Court Press (2006). [Now in a second edition (2010)! With a new and evil-ish-er cover & title!] A pre-publication draft can be found here. But really, you should go and buy this landmark collection of philosophy, and give a copy to every kid at Halloween. Alternately, you can check out some of those thoughts in a presentation, co-presented with Diego Nieto at NerdNiteSF, the week before Halloween. You can witness all the horror of the talk here. A further bit of popular-ish philosophical writing is "Are Psychopathic Serial Killers Evil? Are They Blameworthy for What They Do?" in Serial Killers and Philosophy, ed. Sarah Waller (Blackwell, 2010). A prepublication draft can be found here.

Long ago, I was on Philosophy Talk on March 8, 2009, talking about free will. Check it out here. A brief set of remarks on Latin American philosophy, as part of a panel on Comparative Philosophy organized by Rasmus Winther at UC Santa Cruz, can be found here.

I was on the incomparable moral psychology podcast Very Bad Wizards, talking about Bakersfield and blameworthiness under oppression, in January of 2017.

In 2019, Santiago Amaya and I received a large grant to foment work on free will, agency, and responsibility in Latin America. Write-ups about that project appeared here and here. We also did two seasons of a podcast on free will.

In 2022, I gave a talk about my academic autobiography at Bakersfield College, and I touched on similar topics on a tv program that a friend once watched with his spouse on their anniversary (true story).

Other interviews, profiles, & other media

    Philosophy Talk (7/9/23) Mexican Philosophy

    Kelly Corrigan Wonders (3/14/23) The Value of Philosophy

    The Free Will Show: Revisionism

    UCSD Arts & Humanities: Anti-Racism and Philosophy of the Americas (w/ Dean Christina Della Coletta & Clinton Tolley)

    Interview with Ricardo Lopes on The Dissenter (1/10/20)

Guest on Philosophy Talk (Ken Taylor tribute episode) (2019)

The APA Blog Interview (w/Santiago Amaya) by Nathan Eckstrand (2019)

What is it Like to Be a Philosopher? Interview by Cliff Sosis (2018).

Interview by Istvan Zoltan Zardai at Philosophy of Action Website (2018)

The APA Blog Interview by Skye Cleary (2016)

APA Newsletter on Hispanics/Latinos in Philosophy Interview by Carlos Sánchez (2016)

The UPDirectory (2016)

Methode (2014)

Specimen Magazine (2013)

Philosophy of Action: 5 Questions (2009)

Radcliffe Quarterly (2009)

The Florida Student Philosophy Blog (2007)