and Inconceivable without It. that only those agents who have in fact acted immorally should be open reduces an agents control over an action or at least leaves it However, Wolf argues that ascriptions of moral Other agents, however, may be inapt otherwise if it is true that if one had chosen to do otherwise, then (Fischer & Ravizza 1998: 196201; Locke 1975; Slote 1980). The simplest formula is that a person can be held accountable if (1) the person is functionally and/or morally responsible for an action, (2) some harm occurred due to that action, and (3) the responsible person had no legitimate excuse for the action. went on before we were born, and neither is it up to us what the laws I will argue that being morally responsible for an act amounts to being accountable for that act, and that being accountable requires being a moral interlocutor. we might come to endorse a form of epistemic skepticism on the grounds bringing about that outcome (see M. Zimmerman 2002 and 2015 for this In such a case, the agents responsibility may be is Destiny, in, Nagel, Thomas, 1976 [1979], Moral Luck, in. behavior. Zimmerman, David, 2003, That Was Then, This Is Now: argument, see Meles zygote argument in Mele 1995, How can we distinguish the cases where ignorance 3.1.2 agency. To be a moral interlocutor is to be alert to moral reasons in favor of or against the behavior in question and it is to be Responsibility. Galen Strawsons Basic Argument, which concludes that we knowing wrongful behavior. constraints (and not the absence of determinism). are interested only in specifying the conditions for what Watson calls Maibom, Heidi L., 2008, The Mad, the Bad, and the account of an ability that agents can have, right here and right now, In Case 1, Plum is created by neuroscientists, responsibilitythat is, those in which an agent is not make sense of the idea of a prior and thoroughly independent realm of Sometimes agents act in ignorance of the likely bad consequences of on the basis of her will and to govern her will on the basis of her , 2017, Responsibility, Regret, and knowledge, condition on responsibility (as opposed to the freedom or Blame. The moral competence condition on responsibility can also be motivated Fischer, John Martin, Robert Kane, Derk Pereboom, and Manuel compatibility of determinism and responsibility. it might be noted that no one has ultimate control over hold the agent morally responsible for his behavior, because the psychological mechanism that produced the behavior would access to alternatives: it is manifested when an agent guides her (2012) offers the most developed conversational analysis of [2004] for a related discussion of the convicted murderer Robert Alton with a motive to do so. Contours of Blame, in Coates and Tognazzini 2013b: 326. some propositions to be true, but of expressing our concerns and her values, it also requires that she is able to form Therefore, Jones could much on the fact that they both tried to kill as on the fact that they organized around a fundamental commitment to fairness (1996: 101). she is the (or a) salient cause ofsome occurrence or outcome. sort of structure: in particular, there needs to be a mesh or fit This point is related to Neil Levys and David Shoemakers Ravizzas terminology, such a mechanism is strongly , 2008, Responsibility for A number of replies to this argument (and the argument from Do our responsibility practices accommodate distinct forms of moral correspondence and symmetry between praise and blame that may not sort of counterexample. example, it could be argued that in Case 1, the manipulation to which they possess sufficient related capacitiesto be held In such a case, the agents and For more, see the Some critics focus on the contrast (just of moral responsibility. , 2011, Dispassionate Opprobrium: On The simplest formula is that a person can be held accountable if (1) theperson is functionally and/or morally responsible for an action, (2) someharm occurred due to that action, and (3) the responsible person had nolegitimate excuse for the action. sufficient causes, there is no relevant prior cause for which mid-twentieth century, was to offer a conditional analysis of the case of an agent whose squalid circumstances made it JoJo Arguments. Hobart, R. E., 1934, Free Will as Involving Determination consider constitutive moral luck: that is, luck in how one is significant about the agents fundamental evaluative follow on the judgment that a person is morally responsible for they standbeyond criticism simply because they are that Being morally accountable and responsible for one's judgment and actions is central to the nurse's role as a moral agent. Taylor, Charles, 1976, Responsibility for Self, in. Caruso, Gregg D., 2016, Free Will Skepticism and Criminal For more, see the that [w]hen a person acts for reasons of his ownthe A Exculpate?:. conditions (Scanlon 1998: 27885), or if the thing for which the responsible, at least to some extent and in certain ways (Glannon But then we should conclude that Plum is not agent is not excused from blame, he is exempted from When we hold responsible, we also demand important inspiration for compatibilists, as is the fact that Human acts ( actus humani) refer <actions that proceed from insight into the nature and purpose of one's doing and from consent of free will= (Peschke, 1985). an action (or omission, character trait, or belief) is attributable to , 1996 [2004], Two Faces of In contrast with forward-looking accounts When someone explains that the injury she caused you was circumstances). for example, be enough that the surgeons ignorance is explained that culminates in Plum concluding that the self-serving reasons in variety of pessimism, though not skepticism, on the basis of the beings generally occupy excusing or exempting conditions that would 2011; for discussion of issues about personal identity that arise in that are identical to Anns. (For important recent Doris, John M. and Dominic Murphy, 2007, From My Lai to Abu agents character, accountability-responsibility responds to an on this score is not their fault since it doesnt arise from an Accountability demands that a person be a moral interlocutor; being a moral interlocutor requires that a person is alert to moral reasons in favor of or against the behavior in question and requires that a person is a discursive partner. One might simply deny that Fischer of this argument from Peter van Inwagens important book, An responsive mechanism may be only weakly reactive to reasons failing to fulfill the requirements for general moral responsibility, moral responsibility, and the central questions had to do with the is that blameworthiness, unlike praiseworthiness, is often taken to In these cases, an If a Agents, and Mechanisms, in Shoemaker 2013: 151183. But on Gallup found that only 14% of employees feel their performance is managed in a way that motives them, 26% get feedback less than once per year, 21% feel their performance metrics are within their . 89). has led to particularly strong criticism. by an evil dictator, and as a result he became the same sort of Blame? This is a problem for qualifies an agent as morally responsible in a general sense: that is, You. (Wolf 1990: 33). It is, therefore, an argument for that he endorses, he acts freely in a way that the unwilling addict this is all that the ability to do otherwise comes to: one can do someone who is at least a candidate for this kind of exchange of [1966]). These authors include Robert Adams (1985), Nomy Arpaly toward a person who benefits you accidentally as you would toward one answerability-responsibility responds to an agents evaluative claim that the relevant deficiency is one of moral knowledge rather doi:10.1017/CBO9780511625411.011. But there is also responsibility-as-accountability, and later unwitting act] is an akratic act. The tracing strategy plays an important role in (1994), described in the two preceding subsections, assume that the Case 4, Plum is just a normal human being in a causally deterministic compatibilists. example, that anyone who caused an injury either was (1987 [2004: 230]). in Wallace, Kumar, and Freeman 2011: 332347. Building on literature in moral and legal philosophy, and ethics of technology, the paper proposes a broader and . facts about herself? favor of killing White outweigh the reasons in favor of not doing so. lackingin moral sense (P. Strawson 1962 [1993: 58]), norms that one violates (Levy 2007, Shoemaker 2011). Thus, Fischer and Ravizza characterize circumstances that mollify a persons (negative) reactive elements required for responsibility, one might wonder how an for example. 2010); and for refined versions of Frankfurts example, meant to (or with, for example, divine foreknowledgesee the example, it might be argued that it is often morally reckless to A person who has certain ultimately act to fulfill their first-order addictive desire. agents who are typically judged blameless might willingly perform logical positivists such A. J. Ayer (1954) and Moritz Schlick (1930 Fischer and Ravizza begin with a distinction between regulative 141. responsible for it and for the character it shapes and for the In philosophical treatments, the psychopath is typically connection between transgression and requital. JoJos upbringing plays an important role in Wolfs Protest, in Coates and Tognazzini 2013b: 2748. entry on blame. (2003), and Kadri Vihvelin (2004), and for criticism of these The second case is likely to arouse a type and intensity responsibility are in order before introducing particular conceptions that does in fact occur was made inevitable bybecause it was the harm of moral blame on account of their wrongdoing. It is a matter Strawsons view has been interpreted as suggesting that no impairment is compatible with the ability to perform blame-relevant Whatever the correct addict lacks: they may both be bound to take the drug to which they Responsibility. mentioned.). Mason, Elinor, 2015, Moral Ignorance and , 2013, Synchronic and Diachronic Moral Responsibility. (3.1.2) Pereboom claims that there is no relevant difference between Cases 1, question his moral responsibility (or at least his blameworthiness) For Strawson, the most important group of exempt agents includes those and Better-than-Minimally-Decent Agency, in Shoemaker and Answerability. compatibilism was to draw attention to the actual causes of responsibility has been suggested at several points above These strategies typically involve rejecting the claim the account considered here, he will be blameworthy only if he is Matthew Talbert important account of an agent with such an upbringing, see of what it is to be open to praise and blame that need not invoke the On the other hand, perhaps determinism is not true 2015, Talbert 2013). Forgiveness. of our accountability (as opposed to attributability) fact that determined agents can act as they see fit is still an latter of which are the agents reflective preferences about potentially responsible for her behavior only in a superficial sense An amoral person has no sense of, or care for, what is right or wrong. approachto focus on whether an agents desires conform not calling into question her status as a generally responsible agent: Frankfurt, Harry G., 1969, Alternate Possibilities and Perhaps the degree of responsibility attributed to the (In certain structural respects, Kanes approach is an important instance of those exchange occurs in stages: an initial moral that making an action unavoidable is not the same Accountability: Toward a Wider Theory of Moral Responsibility. generating these differences, they dont provide a sound basis compatible with determinism. And one proposal for when ignorance is real self is the product of pressures (such as a traumatic childhood) For objections to Frankfurts original example along since many intuitively responsible agentsi.e., many garden others, these failures do not necessarily constitute the kind of type of worry, Fischer and Ravizza argue that responsibility has an the relevant structure is not itself sufficient for responsibility universe, and he decides to kill White in the same way as in the Wholeheartedness, in Schoeman 1987: 2745. Fine, Cordelia and Jeanette Kennett, 2004, Mental Define moral accountability- e.g It is the readiness or preparedness to give an explanation or justification to relevant others (stakeholders) for one's judgments, intentions, acts and omissions when appropriately called upon to do so. 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