Shirzad Peik Herfeh


Shirzad Peik Herfeh is an Iranian philosopher, author, translator and university professor at Imam Khomeini International University. He is best known for his Persian translation of the Consequentialisim written by Julia Driver and On Adam Smith written by Jack Russell Weinstein and many of articles he translated to Persian language from English, in the fields of philosophy; especially philosophy of morality. Also, he is active as a manager in the Iranian Association of Philosophy and Institute for Research in Philosophy as a life member. Peik Herfeh taught philosophy as a faculty member in the philosophy group of the Imam Khomeini International University, Faculty of Humanities. Peik Herfeh also wrote a variety of articles from Iranian School and Islamic Philosophy to Western Analytic and moral philosophy which is his profession. As an author, Shirzad Peik Herfeh wrote two books in the fields of moral philosophy which called as Borders of Ethics and Utilitarianism. Both of them released in Iran in 2012 and 2015 respectively.

Early life and education

Shirzad Peik Herfeh was born on 22 February 1980 in Rasht, Northern Iran, and obtained his bachelor in the fields of English language and litreture from Shiraz University, his master in philosophy in Imam Khomeini International University and his PhD in philosophy on 13 January 2010 from Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran.
He has worked as a lecturer in several universities in Tehran, including Allameh Tabataba'i University. He was also an interpreter at several bilingual philosophical conferences, such as “International Conference on Religious Epistemology”, “International Conference on Mulla Sadra & Transcendent Philosophy” and “International Conference on Two Hundred Years after Kant.” He has worked as a researcher, translator, and interpreter for Iranian philosophical institutes like “Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies”, “Iranian Institute of Philosophy,” and “Sadra Islamic Philosophy Institute.” Now, he is a faculty member and assistant professor of department of philosophy at Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran. He has published more than 20 books and research papers, including The Limits of Morality, An Analysis and Critique of Classical and Modern Types of Utilitarianism, and Persian translation of Julia Driver’s Consequentialism, and J. R. Weinstein’s On Adam Smith. His expertise, research interests, and publications are focused in the areas of moral, political and legal philosophy; harm and liberty-limiting principles, comparative analysis between pre-Islamic Iranian teachings, Western philosophies and philosophers; comparative analysis between Islamic ethics and jurisprudence and Western moral philosophy; and comparative analysis between the main after-Islamic Iranian philosophical traditions – esp. The Peripatetic School, the Illumination School and the Transcendent Philosophy - and Western philosophies and philosophers. He has taught students in these areas of expertise and has a particular interest in developing his theory entitled “the moral permissibility of subjective harm” for establishing peace and tolerance in the world – esp, in the Middle East.
Peik Herfeh was a member of jury and chairman of “ethics panel” in “2010 International Conference on World Philosophy Day.” He is also a senior member of “International Economics Development Research Center,” Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Academic works

Shirzad Peik Herfeh is an Iranian philosopher, intellectual, moral, political, and legal theorist. Also an author, translator and a university professor. He is best known for his theories for “peace” and “tolerance” in the world and in the Middle East, such as “The Moral Permissibility of Subjective Harms as a Base for Peace & Tolerance”, “A New Synthetic Model as a Refinement for the Do/Allow Distinction”, “An Appeal to Mysticism for Solving the Problem of Fanaticism”, “The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law;” and his own “Harm Principle” in which he criticizes J. S. Mill’s “Harm Principle,” analyzes different kinds of “harm” and categorizes them into two different categories: “subjective” & “objective.” He is also against “Legal Moralism” and “Legal Paternalism.”
Peik Herfeh is also known for introducing the newest and hottest theories in moral, political, and legal philosophy to Persian-speaking and Muslim world, and his Persian translations of English books and papers including Julia Driver’s Consequentialism and Jack Russell Weinstein’s On Adam Smith.
He is also the manager of “IPA: Iranian Philosophers Association” in which he tries to criticize what he calls Pop philosophy and open a third front for philosophy in Iran as well as “Academic Philosophy” and “Pop Philosophy.”
Peik Herfeh has taught philosophy for many years in Iran. Now, he is a faculty member in the department of philosophy at Imam Khomeini International University. Peik Herfeh has also written a variety of articles from Iranian Zoroastrian pre-Islamic and post-Islamic thoughts to Western Philosophy.
His first Persian book entitled “The Borders of Ethics” has been the “award winner” of the 20th Book of the Season Award in the Islamic Republic of Iran. It has been published in 2012 by Ney publication, the best Iranian publication in humanities and social sciences. His last Persian book entitled “The Origins and Different Types of Classical & Modern Utilitarianism” has been published by Nashr-e Negah-e Mo’aser. In this very book, he tries to find a reasonable answer for a variety of questions about “utilitarianism,” such as:
  1. Are the values that should figure in determining which option is the best, ‘the values of what would be the case were the agent to carry out the option’ or ‘the values that are possible for the agent in an ideal situation’?
  2. Is the moral quality of a feature of agency determined by ‘actual consequences’ or by what the agent ‘expects’ or ‘intends’ to be brought about by her actions?
  3. Is ‘the greatest good principle’ a criterion for evaluating ‘all features of agency’ or just agent’s ‘actions’?
  4. Is the right action what ‘maximizes the good’ or what ‘satisfices the good’?
  5. Which one is the sole intrinsic good: ‘pleasure’ or ‘preference’?

    Journals

*
*