Fair Opportunity and Responsibility

Fair Opportunity and Responsibility explores the relationship between responsibility, desert, culpability, excuse, blame, and punishment, focusing on how agents' capacities and opportunities affect their ability to avoid misconduct. It suggests that responsibility consists of having suitable cognitive and volitional capacities and a fair opportunity to exercise these capacities, supporting a predominantly retributive conception of blame and punishment.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 448 pages
\n Publication date: 01 June 2021
\n Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Fair Opportunity and Responsibility is a complex and multifaceted concept that lies at the intersection of moral psychology and criminal jurisprudence. It delves into the examination of responsibility and its intricate relationships with concepts such as desert, culpability, excuse, blame, and punishment. This field explores how responsibility is linked to reactive attitudes, but it also emphasizes the importance of a prior and independent conception of responsibility.

Responsibility and excuse are inversely related, meaning that an agent is responsible for misconduct only if it is not excused. Understanding excuses is crucial in studying responsibility, as it sheds light on the factors that impair an agent's capacities or opportunities to avoid wrongdoing. When an agent's capacities or opportunities are significantly impaired, we excuse their misconduct, recognizing that these capacities and opportunities are essential for agents to have a fair opportunity to avoid wrongdoing.

According to this conception of excuse, responsibility itself consists of agents possessing suitable cognitive and volitional capacities, referred to as normative competence. It also encompasses the notion of situational control, which ensures that agents have a fair opportunity to exercise these capacities without undue interference. This understanding of excuse suggests that responsibility is not merely a matter of outcome but also of process. It emphasizes the importance of agents having the necessary cognitive and volitional abilities to make ethical decisions and act in a manner that aligns with their values.

Moreover, the fair opportunity conception of responsibility supports a predominantly retributive conception of blame and punishment. It treats culpable wrongdoing as the desert basis of blame and punishment, emphasizing the need for individuals to be held accountable for their actions. By applying the fair opportunity framework to various circumstances, such as structural injustice, situational influences in ordinary circumstances, wartime, insanity, psychopathy, immaturity, addiction, and crimes of passion, we can assess responsibility and excuse more holistically.

While fair opportunity has significant implications for each of these issues, treating them together allows us to explore common themes and appreciate the need to take partial responsibility and excuse seriously in our practices of blame and punishment. It prompts us to consider the broader societal and structural factors that may contribute to misconduct and to work towards creating a more just and equitable society.

In conclusion, Fair Opportunity and Responsibility is a crucial concept that sheds light on the complex interplay between responsibility, excuse, and punishment. It emphasizes the importance of a fair opportunity for all individuals to avoid wrongdoing and to be held accountable for their actions. By understanding excuses and applying the fair opportunity framework to different circumstances, we can strive towards a more just and compassionate society that recognizes the inherent worth and dignity of every individual.

\n Weight: 798g\n
Dimension: 165 x 241 x 33 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780198859468\n \n