The Nature of Moral Responsibility: New Essays
Randolph Clarke, Michael McKenna, and Angela M. Smith
Abstract
Recent philosophical work reveals considerable disagreement about what it is to be morally responsible for something. Indeed, some theorists claim to distinguish several varieties of moral responsibility, with different conditions that must be satisfied if one is to bear responsibility of one or another of these kinds. Debate on this point turns partly on disagreement about the kinds of responses made appropriate when one is blameworthy or praiseworthy. It is generally agreed that these include “reactive attitudes” such as resentment and gratitude, but there is disagreement about the nature of ... More
Recent philosophical work reveals considerable disagreement about what it is to be morally responsible for something. Indeed, some theorists claim to distinguish several varieties of moral responsibility, with different conditions that must be satisfied if one is to bear responsibility of one or another of these kinds. Debate on this point turns partly on disagreement about the kinds of responses made appropriate when one is blameworthy or praiseworthy. It is generally agreed that these include “reactive attitudes” such as resentment and gratitude, but there is disagreement about the nature of these attitudes. Theorists dispute as well the connections between moral responsibility, desert, and the justification of punishment. Many theorists take it that, whatever the appropriate responses are, they are responses to an agent’s “quality of will.” But there is disagreement about what this comes to. Are the agent’s beliefs about the moral status of her behavior what matter, or is it what she cares about, or what she judges important? This volume presents chapters from participants in these debates.
Keywords:
blameworthiness,
desert,
moral responsibility,
quality of will,
reactive attitude,
resentment
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199998074 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: June 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199998074.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Randolph Clarke, editor
Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University
Michael McKenna, editor
Professor and Keith Lehrer Chair of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, University of Arizona
Angela M. Smith, editor
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Washington and Lee University
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