Retrospective Responsibility: Justification and Conditions

We are pleased to announce that a conference on “Retrospective Responsibility: Justification and Conditions” will be held at the University of Siena 22-23 September 2025. 

The subject of the conference "Retrospective Responsibility: Justification and Conditions" is retrospective responsibility, i.e. responsibility for actions that have already taken place, in particular to clarify whether someone is accountable. The aim of the conference is to justify and specify the individual conditions of retrospective responsibility via determining the function of retrospective responsibility within the framework of a more comprehensive theory of social control by means of sanctioned norms. In addition to general contributions on the function of responsibility, there will therefore be contributions on individual conditions of retrospective responsibility that are particularly in need of clarification.

PROGRAMME

Monday, 22nd September 2025
09.00-09.15  Opening
1. GENERAL APPROACHES TO RESPONSIBILITY: 09.15-10.25  James Lenman (Sheffield) - Owning It
10.50-12.00  Sofia Bonicalzi (Roma Tre) - Beyond Monism: A Contextual and Pluralistic Approach to Moral Responsibility
12.10-13.20  Christoph Lumer (Siena) - Outline of a Social Control Theory of Retrospective Responsibility
2. PUNISHMENT AND BLAME:
15.00-16.10  Niels de Haan (Vienna) - The Core-Periphery Model for Theories of Blame
3. CAUSALITY AND WRONGDOING:
16.40-17.50  Carolina Sartorio (Rutgers) - Responsibility, Causation, and the Cart-Horse Metaphor
18.00-19.10  Michael S. Moore (Illinois) - The Several Faces of Wrongdoing (NB. Online session)
20.00  Dinner

Tuesday, 23rd September 2025
4. CONDITIONS AND LIMITS OF RESPONSIBILITY:
09.00-10.10  D. Justin Coates (Houston) - Normative Competence, Mental Disorder, and Degrees of Responsibility
Coffee break
10.40-11.50  Anneli Jefferson (Cardiff) - Real Selves, Capacities and Mental Disorders
12.20-13.10  Olof Leffler (Siena) - The Role of Reflection in Reasons-Responsiveness
Lunch
5. ALTERNATIVE POSSIBILITIES:
15.00-16.10  Christian List (LMU Munich) - Responsibility without Alternative Possibilities?
Coffee break
6. RESPONSIBILITY OF COLLECTIVES:
16.40-17.50  Nathan Biebel (Jagiellonian Krakow) - Blame Incorporated: Effective Blame and Group Moral Agency
18.00-19.10  Bill Wringe (Bilkent/York) - How - If at All - Should we Distribute Responsibility for Collective Omissions?
20.00  Dinner

Dates and times: 22–23 September 2025. Please note that the schedule for talks above follows Italian time (CEST).

Venue: The conference will take place at the Sezione di Fisica (aka. Palazzina di Fisica), sala di riunione, at via Roma 56 in Siena.

Attendance of guests: The conference will be held in person only. Attendance is free and open to anyone interested, but please e-mail us ([email protected] or [email protected]) in advance to register. Importantly, please also notify us of whether you are interested in joining for lunch or dinner. And please also contact us if you have any questions.  

Funding: Financed by the European Union – Next Generation EU: funds of project PRIN2022 CUP B53D23033960006, Person scientifically responsible Prof. Christoph Lumer. We are grateful for the support.

Coordination and contacts for any questions:
Christoph Lumer ([email protected])
Olof Leffler ([email protected])