Moral Responsibility Reconsidered

This Element examines the concept of moral responsibility and explores the justifiability of moral practices such as praise/blame,retributive punishment,and reactive attitudes. It distinguishes between basic and non-basic desert conceptions of moral responsibility and considers skeptical arguments against each. It proposes an alternative account grounded in non-desert-invoking desiderata such as protection,reconciliation,and moral formation. It addresses concerns about the practical implications of skepticism and explains how optimistic skeptics can preserve most of what we care about in our interpersonal relationships,morality,and meaning in life.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 75 pages
Publication date: 01 December 2022
Publisher: Cambridge University Press

This Element examines the concept of moral responsibility as it is used in contemporary philosophical debates and explores the justifiability of the moral practices associated with it, including moral praise/blame, retributive punishment, and the reactive attitudes of resentment and indignation. After identifying and discussing several different varieties of responsibility, including causal responsibility, take-charge responsibility, role responsibility, liability responsibility, and the kinds of responsibility associated with attributability, answerability, and accountability, it distinguishes between basic and non-basic desert conceptions of moral responsibility and considers a number of skeptical arguments against each. It then outlines an alternative forward-looking account of moral responsibility grounded in non-desert-invoking desiderata such as protection, reconciliation, and moral formation. It concludes by addressing concerns about the practical implications of skepticism about desert-based moral responsibility and explains how optimistic skeptics can preserve most of what we care about when it comes to our interpersonal relationships, morality, and meaning in life.

This Element examines the concept of moral responsibility as it is used in contemporary philosophical debates and explores the justifiability of the moral practices associated with it, including moral praise/blame, retributive punishment, and the reactive attitudes of resentment and indignation.

This Element examines the concept of moral responsibility as it is used in contemporary philosophical debates and explores the justifiability of the moral practices associated with it, including moral praise/blame, retributive punishment, and the reactive attitudes of resentment and indignation.

Weight: 138g
Dimension: 229 x 152 x 5 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781009219754