Moral Responsibility pp 71-81 | Cite as
Blame, Reasons and Capacities
Abstract
It is usually agreed that we must recognise that responsibility (in the sense of blameworthiness) comes in degrees if we are to accurately reflect the moral landscape of people’s actions. In this paper I develop this view by constructing a framework which will allow us to determine the degree to which an agent is blameworthy for failing to act. This framework accommodates the close connection between an agent’s blameworthiness and her reasons, which I argue should lead us to see reasons as coming in degrees. The view that reasons come in degrees is justified on the basis of two claims: first, reasons are constrained by what it is possible for the agent to do, and second, it may be possible to some degree for an agent to do something. I conclude the paper by demonstrating how this framework can be used to justify claims about the degree to which an agent has a reason, and the degree to which an agent can be blameworthy in a given case.
Keywords
Actual World Reason Condition Rational Capacity Intrinsic Quality Close WorldReferences
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