The Nature of Moral Responsibility

New Essays

Edited by Randolph Clarke, Michael McKenna, and Angela Smith

The first collection of newly commissioned articles on moral responsibility in nearly three decades
Contributors include prominent established figures as well as influential younger philosophers
Topics explored include: The nature of moral responsibility; whether there are different kinds, or varieties, of moral responsibility; the relation between being responsible and holding responsible; quality of will and the deep self; responsibility and communication

The Nature of Moral Responsibility

New Essays

Edited by Randolph Clarke, Michael McKenna, and Angela Smith

Description

What is it to be morally responsible for something? Recent philosophical work reveals considerable disagreement on the question. 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 theorists disagree about the nature of these attitudes. They dispute the connections between moral responsibility, desert, and the justification of punishment as well.

Many theorists take it that, whatever the appropriate responses are, they are responses to an agent's "quality of will," but there is no consensus on 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 twelve original essays from participants in these debates. The contributors include prominent established figures as well as influential younger philosophers. A substantive introduction by the editors surveys recent debates and situates the contributions within it.

The Nature of Moral Responsibility

New Essays

Edited by Randolph Clarke, Michael McKenna, and Angela Smith

Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Part I. The Nature of Moral Responsibility: Some Frameworks
Chapter 1. Neal A. Tognazzini, The Strains of Involvement
Chapter 2. Michael J. Zimmerman, Varieties of Moral Responsibility
Chapter 3. Gideon Rosen, The Alethic Conception of Moral Responsibility
Chapter 4. T. M. Scanlon, Forms and Conditions of Responsibility
Part II. Quality of Will and the Deep Self
Chapter 5. David Shoemaker, Ecumenical Attributability
Chapter 6. Nomy Arpaly, Huckleberry Finn Revisited: Inverse Akrasia and Moral Ignorance
Chapter 7. Julia Driver, Appraisability, Attributability, and Moral Agency
Chapter 8. Holly M. Smith, Dual-Process Theory and Moral Responsibility
Part III. Responsibility in Practice: Communication, Substantive Responsibility, and Moral
Desert
Chapter 9. Coleen Macnamara, Blame, Communication, and Morally Responsible Agency
Chapter 10. George Sher, Responsibility, Conversation, and Communication
Chapter 11. Rahul Kumar, Contractualism and the Roots of Responsibility
Chapter 12. Derk Pereboom, A Notion of Moral Responsibility Immune to the Threat from
Causal Determination
Suggested Further Readings
Index

The Nature of Moral Responsibility

New Essays

Edited by Randolph Clarke, Michael McKenna, and Angela Smith

Author Information

Edited by Randolph Clarke, Professor of Philosophy, Florida State University, Edited by Michael McKenna, Professor and Keith Lehrer Chair in the Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona, and Edited by Angela Smith, Roger Mudd Professor of Ethics and Director of the Roger Mudd Center for Ethics, Washington and Lee University

Randolph Clarke is Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. He is the author of Libertarian Accounts of Free Will (Oxford University Press, 2003), Omissions: Agency, Metaphysics, and Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 2014) and numerous articles on agency, free will, and moral responsibility.

Michael McKenna is Professor and Keith Lehrer Chair in the Department of Philosophy and Center for the Philosophy of Freedom at the University of Arizona. He is the author of Conversation and Responsibility (Oxford University Press, 2012) and numerous articles on free will and moral responsibility.

Angela Smith is Roger Mudd Professor of Ethics and Director of the Roger Mudd Center for Ethics at Washington and Lee University. She is the author of numerous articles on moral responsibility, moral agency, and moral psychology.

Contributors:

Nomy Arpaly is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Brown University.
Julia Driver is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis.
Rahul Kumar is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Queen's University.
Coleen Macnamara is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of California,
Riverside.
Derk Pereboom is Susan Linn Sage Professor in Philosophy and Ethics at Cornell University.
Gideon Rosen is Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University.
T. M. Scanlon is the Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity at
Harvard University.
George Sher is the Herbert S. Autrey Professor of Philosophy at Rice University.
David Shoemaker is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Murphy
Institute at Tulane University.
Holly M. Smith is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Neal A. Tognazzini is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Western Washington University.
Michael J. Zimmerman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro.

The Nature of Moral Responsibility

New Essays

Edited by Randolph Clarke, Michael McKenna, and Angela Smith

Reviews and Awards

"There are new voices here, and the old voices find new and interesting things to say...There is a lot to say on the subject. I hasten to add that much of what is said in this volume is very insightful...I mentioned that this volume would be beneficial for both specialists and those familiarizing themselves with the current state of the debate. One reason for this is that several of the chapters expand on recent monographs. These chapters are profitable whether or not one is already familiar with the previous works." - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online